A nutritional therapist from London has launched the most comprehensive multi PCOS supplement in the UK. She was diagnosed as a teen and told she may never have children but now she’s a happy mum of 2 and is on a mission to help women just like her.
Louise Robbie, 42, experienced an emotional fertility journey due to PCOS. She tried to conceive naturally for 9 months and was put on medication which made her sick daily. However, when she decided to change her diet, supplements and exercise, she fell pregnant in 3 months. “It was a light had been turned on”, she said. “No one in my PCOS journey from the medical profession had ever suggested changing my diet but, I saw first hand from my lived experience the massive shift that can come from the right nutrition and supplements for PCOS.”
Her health journey led to a pivot in her career from large multinational corporates in marketing to retrain as a qualified Nutritional Therapist DipNT CNM and launch Ovi Formulas - a supplement company offering evidence-based blends - with a vegan, dissolvable multivitamin for women with PCOS.
Robbie’s journey started 10 years ago, when she got married and decided she wanted to have a family. She was put on Metformin and Clomid by her gynaecologist and had follicle tracking scans to the get HCG shots. "I think the Metformin was the hardest to tolerate", Robbie said. "I had nausea every single day of taking it, which was 6 months! I just generally felt awful. I used to just go to bed and stay there to try and manage the nausea. I had to stop taking it and felt like I’d failed and my body was broken." So, Robbie decided to try a more natural approach by changing her diet and exercise.
“I had to change a lot about my diet", she said. "I really focused on protein, massively improving veggie intake, reduced gluten and dairy, reduced processed food, switched to dark chocolate. I gave up drinking alcohol. I took up yoga. I educated myself on my menstrual cycle. I learnt about ovulation cues without using ovulation sticks. I used basal temperature tracking and cervical mucous tracking. It was like a whole new world I was opened up to…”
But she found supplements were always going to be necessary to fill the gaps in nutrition. “I was taking over 10 pills a day and found it quite a struggle and some I had to buy off random American websites”, Robbie explained. “I wanted to make it easier for women to get access to the nutrients that are going to make a difference to PCOS.”
The multivitamin works to combine all the supplements she was taking in 18 ingredients - including a 40:1 blend of Myo-Inositol and D-chiro inositol - which help manage the symptoms of PCOS. Robbie also recommends adding 300mcg folate per day for a pre-conception dosage.
PCOS or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, affects 1 in 10 women in the UK. It's a chronic condition which affects how a woman’s ovaries work. It can mean irregular periods, excess androgen (‘male’ hormones) and enlargement of the ovaries which can also contain fluid-filled sacs. Women with PCOS also have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and high blood pressure.
Robbie had an “emotional and traumatic” journey with PCOS however, now a mum of 2 boys aged 8 and 6, she is making a difference in women's health and finally in tune with her body. "My cycle is now regular, my skin doesn’t break out and my facial hair growth is controlled, I don’t have constant sugar cravings and enjoy food again. I also have better gut health. It’s like night and day. - I want to shout it from the rooftops to stop women going through the same as me", she said.
Explore Ovi Formulas here: https://oviformulas.com/
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