PCOS Magazine

Two of the most intensive jobs of starting a magazine are finding content and procuring advertisers.

I’ll admit this…the first issue was short. This next issue (which will be out shortly) will be longer. To keep up with this trend, here at PCOS Magazine, we need help! I don’t like short, and I know you, as readers, like more pages and more content. Who doesn’t?

Do you have a background in journalism? Do you like to write? Do you have a unique story idea that you’d like to develop into a story and then contribute? If so, then we want to hear it!

Also, more advertisers means more premium content. We need advertising sales gurus who are willing to work on commission (at least staring out) to help PCOS Magazine add more advertisers to its repertoire. You have the background? Contact the editor!

Hello all! The magazine is one day away from being available! My apologies on this short, short delay. Look back here tomorrow, Oct. 1, for information about how to subscribe to PCOS Magazine and get its next issue. It promises to have some great content for you! Monika Woolsey, Angela Grassi and Holly Amarandei’s columns will be a definite good read! Also included is a story about the long-term effects of chronic illness (specifically, PCOS), and a great extended review of Fairhaven Health’s products.

I had previously migrated this blog to the PCOS Magazine website. Then the “update” to Wordpress 2.8.4 happened, and I’ve had nothing but trouble ever since. So, while I made a change in coding (per suggestions) and while the 8-zillion files ftp to my hosting provider, I’m posting here.

PCOS Magazine is slated to hit the proverbial newsstands next Wednesday, Sept. 30. I will be posting subscription links (very obvious for all to see) on both the PCOS Magazine website as well as Facebook and most likely Twitter. I will also post information to these two blogs, provided I can access the one now attached to the magazine’s website. In addition to columns by Angela Grassi, Monika Woolsey and Holly Amarandei, there will also be a great article about the long-term emotional effects of PCOS and other chronic illnesses, featuring information from women and girls like you with PCOS. I guarantee it’ll be a good read.

On the personal front, I’ve now been taking Byetta almost a month. Getting ready to move on to the 10mcg dose. However, about a week ago started getting the requisite funky sore throat and now I have some minor oral (mouth) soreness. Couldn’t find much online about the oral soreness, but wonder if it’s still possible. Mind you, at the same time, my sinuses started getting inflamed again, which leads to my cheeks and upper palette swelling a little bit…so it could be that. If anyone’s had mouth soreness on Byetta, I’d love to hear about it. Want to make sure I’m not completely nuts.

About a month ago, I was approached by the fine folks at Fairhaven Health to take a look at their products. The interesting thing is that they focus on fertility. For me personally, that’s not a huge need. HOWEVER, for many women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, issues of fertility and conception are a huge part of their lives. So I decided to give Fairhaven the benefit of the doubt and take a look at their products and let you know what I thought.

Fairhaven Health specializes in natural fertility, pregnancy and nursing products. They offer a combination of both OTC pharmaceutical supplements and non-pharmaceutical fertility and conception aids for women. They feature a number of reviews on their site from women whose doctors suggested the use of their products during the pre-natal periods.

For the sake of my review, I asked to see products of the non-pharmaceutical sort.

Pregnancy Wheel and Ovulation Calendar

For those of you women who like to take a natural approach to conception, they’ve got some really great products to choose from. For instance, I’m a rather analytical type. I like to be able to know exactly when something’s happening, or at least to be able to predict it. For those of us with PCOS, also knowing when ovulation *could* occur is a good thing. Fairhaven has produced a Pregnancy Wheel and Ovulation Calendar that spoke right to my analytical side. It allows you to adjust the wheel to your cycle length, to pinpoint when you are menstruating, when you might ovulate, and then helps you track the different phases of pregnancy. In taking a good, strong look at this wheel, I noticed it also pointed out when amniocentesis, ultrasounds, and glucose screens should be done during the pregnancy cycle. Hey, Fairhaven, can you produce one of these for my LIFE? On the back of the wheel are numerous preconception calendar tips. A great little resource!

Next up, what especially caught my interest was their yoga DVD. I used to be an intermediate yoga practitioner; it’s something that I want (and SHOULD) get back into, so anything that deals with yoga catches my interest. Their yoga DVD is entitled “Bend, Breathe, and Conceive: Fertility Yoga,” and it was produced with Anna Davis, Ph.D., RYT. Its focus is on what’s called gentle flow yoga, with guided meditation, for all levels of yoga practitioners. As a yoga practitioner, I knew about how yoga helps release toxins from the body (this is why I used to always take a big bottle of water to every yoga session I went to…so immediately following I could gulp  like it was going out of style. If I didn’t, I’d feel horrible until this stuff was flushed out). On the back of the DVD are a few great little

Bend, Breathe and Conceive DVD

kernels of information about the connections between stress and fertility. They’re a little hard to read due to the background color, but good information. The one that caught my eye, and even made me think about how stress affects my body, was “learn how daily anxieties and ‘fertility frustration’ can trigger the release of stress hormones that disrupt the health functioning of the reproductive system.” QUICK — where’s my yoga mat?

I also took a sniff (yes, a sniff) at their Fertile Flame Fertility Candle. While I’m not typically one to get really excited about aromatherapy, I have been known

Fertile Flame Fertility Candle

to seek the benefits of anything peppermint to perk me up, apples and cinnamon during the colder months to soothe me, so on and so forth. Fairhaven’s Fertile Flame is said to combine fertility-enhancing scents with the ritual of lighting candles to improve emotional and mental well-being. As frazzled as we can become from our crazy lives, something that helps you center is always welcome. The candle is a combination of three scents — chamomile, jasmine, and ylang ylang. It’s potent, but soothing, made of soy wax, in its own container. Don’t be concerned if your candle arrives and there are a few small chips of wax on the top of it. This will happen in transport. You haven’t lost much.

Fairhaven Health has a plethora of natural products that I’d be willing to try if I were in the process of trying to conceive. The company, its website, everything about it, isn’t pushy, but offers you the fullest opportunity to be present and an active part of the conception process. Their combination of both non-pharmaceutical conception aids (like specially made basal thermometers) and pregnancy and post-pregnancy items (like Dreambelly Stretch Mark Cream, Pregnancy Deoderant, and Nursing Time Tea) as well as their supplements (like Pregnancy Plus Omega-3) is refreshing. I invite you to take a look. Most of their prices seem fairly reasonable, they offer a supplement ingredient list under the “Physicians” tab of their website, and provide information about the medical advisors that work with the company in the production of their products. Nothing about this company sent up any red flags for me. They’ve put it all out there to prove to their current and potential customers that they’re here to meet your needs.

When I’m not busily preparing an issue of PCOS Today Magazine or working in the PCOS community to further the “cause” (as it were), I also teach mass communications at Kansas State University. I had the opportunity about a week ago to hear Bill Buzenberg, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, speak during the School of JMC’s Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media.

Buzenberg spoke of the rocky tradition of journalism, its watchdog forms, muckracking, and the fact that in current day, we see way too much coverage of the same things (four weeks of nothing but Anna Nichole Smith? I rest my case.). Now, while I was sitting there, I was definitely thinking of relevance not only to the students of public relations I teach at K-State, but the relevance of Buzenberg’s speach to PCOS.

One of those main themes of Buzenberg’s speech was the fact that writers have gotten away from tough investigative journalism. This got me to thinking about PCOS Today Magazine and the kinds of content the magazine should include, actively. And it was through sitting there and listening to Buzenberg’s speech that made me realize that one of the most important missions of the magazine should be to provide the most in-depth and unique content that can be provided.

We have some VERY relevant issues within the PCOS community that we haven’t even scratched the surface of, much past some grassroots discussions and rumblings on various message boards. When I spoke at a conference on women’s health this past July in Chicago, the health professionals in attendance mentioned having to “creatively code” PCOS in order to get insurance companies to accept and cover the diagnosis, as well as it’s treatment. Polycystic ovarian syndrome, as those of us who deal with this disorder every day of our lives, is a very legitimate health issue that SHOULD be covered by insurance. I think it’s time for some of Buzenberg’s “tough investigative journalism” to do a little discovery to dig into this conundrum.

At the same time, this makes me wonder if there needs to be a watchdog role regarding PCOS? The insurance question definitely falls into this criteria, but what about the current rumblings about the possible misnaming of PCOS. What about the fact that big pharma is the single biggest lobby in D.C.? Many women with PCOS rely on various pharmaceuticals (metformin/Glucophage, spironolactone, oral contraceptives, Vaniqa, etc.) to deal with the symptoms of PCOS. How do the wheelings and dealings of big pharma and its lobby affect women and girls with PCOS?

I think — no, I BELIEVE — these are some of the big questions that PCOS Today Magazine (and any other writer who focuses on PCOS) should focus on. They’re relevant, timely, and need to be answered for the benefit of PCOS patients.