Dry Fasting for PCOS Cysts?

My wife and I are trying for kids after 3 years of kicking the can down the road (2 years of reluctance due to COVID, and then a year of family/work issues that set us back) but she has really bad PCOS (a cyst in the left Ovary the size of a golf ball making half of her cycles infertile) and we really want to start trying for kids ASAP, but only having 6 tries a year is extremely constraining. Could doing a dry fast help to get at her Ovarian cyst? Shes done ~4 days of a water fast but hasn't seen any difference from scans from the OBGYN and going keto didn't seem to help much other than tightening up her wild cycles. I'd imagine if the body is eating through everything in that starvation state, that it would be able eat at that cyst causing all these problem (its benign btw, just huge that she has had since adolescence). I haven't found any research on fasting helping with PCOS or cysts in general, but I figure if anything, a 72 hour soft dry fast might be doable for her. Does anyone else have any insight on the issue?

Answer

We had a surprise kid after my wife did shift work for around 5 months. She was only able to eat once or twice a day because she was so busy. She also had PCOS.

So I think it’s more about consistency than a one-off weeklong fast.

Look up ex-vegan videos. Plenty of instances where people start eating A LOT more meat and then getting their cycles back.

Saturated animal fat is probably the most important food for fertility. It signals an abundance of nutrient-rich food is available. Arguably, grains and plants are what we ate when we couldn’t land a big kill. They are sometimes referred to as starvation foods.

Answer

She needs to fast regularly, I’ve also heard and seen people get pregnant after starting keto so maybe she just needs time and be consistent with it! I too have PCOS and am on a similar journey though not planning to get pregnant just yet.

Answer

Fasting can help with fertility problems but it will take time. She would need to commit to doing it regularly for months. She needs to definitely cut out junk foods, alcohol, smoking, etc (though if you guys are already TTC hopefully she’s already done it.)

Personally, I’d also limit dairy products.

The other poster is right. An issue like this isn’t a one and done.Is she having any menstrual cycles?