![\"PCOS](\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/PCOS_Reversed.jpg\")
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From mid-2024 through 2025, dietitians at a women’s and children’s hospital in Yangzhou, China, randomized 60 women with PCOS to two diets for 12 weeks.<\/p>\n
PCOS affects 8 to 13% of women of reproductive age, and 50 to 70% have insulin resistance. The WHO says it cannot be cured. In May 2026, a Lancet consensus renamed it polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome.<\/p>\n
Thirty went keto: under 50 grams of carbs a day, with fats like avocado, nuts, olive oil and fatty fish. Thirty ate a China-adapted Mediterranean-style diet with whole grains, legumes and fruit, the diet the authors call most widely recommended. Both had matched calorie targets, counseling and exercise advice.<\/p>\n
Of 13 keto women with no periods at the start, 12 got them back, versus 5 of 15 on the Mediterranean-style diet. Excluding women already regular (3 versus 12), 26 of 27 reached regular cycles on keto, versus 8 of 18. Insulin resistance fell 72% versus 35%. Frontiers in Nutrition published it in September.<\/p>\n
Be straight about it. One hospital, 60 Chinese women, 12 weeks, open label, self-reported cycles, not yet repeated. The keto group lost about 22 pounds more on the same calorie targets, so real intake may have differed, and the authors can’t separate ketosis from weight loss and adherence.<\/p>\n
Testosterone didn’t change. Nobody measured ovulation or pregnancy. Diabetes and thyroid patients were excluded. Zero dropouts and unbroken ketosis: unusually tidy data. The authors advise keto first, then Mediterranean long term. Never start, stop or change medication without your doctor.<\/p>\n
The point is not that keto cures PCOS, or that the Mediterranean diet failed. Both helped. The point is that for a condition now named for its metabolism, the low-carb plate moved periods and insulin further.<\/p>\n
The new name says metabolic. Start at the plate.<\/p>\n