PCOS and blood sugar/insulin issues?

Hello all,

I'm a 30-year-old female. First of all I should be clear that I haven't been diagnosed with PCOS. I'm working with doctors to diagnose what's going on with me, but am looking for extra info from anyone who may be knowledgeable about PCOS and how it affects other aspects of the body. I've often found when seeing doctors that I have to be very proactive about pursuing many options, and have to come in with a somewhat educated mindset.

So for months (probably September to December) I experienced frequent "hypoglycemic" episodes almost daily. I put quotations around that because while I show the symptoms that I would consider hypoglycemic (extreme bouts of hunger, lightheadedness, eye strain, eye dryness, feeling like my brain was always hungry, feeling anxious..etc.) my actual blood sugar levels were normal. They were normal when I monitored at home and they were normal when I did blood sugar tests (both the fasting and a1c(?)). One thing my doctor never did check, however, were my insulin levels.

To complicate things I also have a thyroid condition. Im hypothyroid (have Hashimoto's thyroiditis) and have been on the same medication for years with thyroid levels in the normal range (though granted I know that the normal range is quite broad).

With this said, I've had a difficult time trying to figure out what exactly has been happening with me. To reiterate I have not been diagnosed with diabetes, though the hunger issues were terrible and persisted daily. In the worst phase of it I would have a hard time falling asleep, and woke up in the morning with stomach in pain from hunger and part of my wrist numb 😢. I also dealt with daily headaches/migraines, and I felt constantly hungry. My doctor checked my blood sugar and cortisol levels and basic metabolic function and just said everything was normal which was pretty discouraging.

The one thing I am wondering about which is why I"m posting on this forum is if it's possible that these hunger issues (and perhaps insulin issues?) could be due to something like PCOS. I've had a very long history of problems with my periods (e.g. extreme fatigue, headaches, hot flashes, night sweats....), and every time that a doctor prescribed me a pill that had any amount of estrogen in it (even the very lowest amount) my reactions were pretty bad and I had to stop taking the pill (I would get very bad headaches for instance or heart palpitations). Some people I know have wondered if I'm estrogen dominant. I also have had the unusual symptoms of experiencing mild uterine bleeding immediately after intense workouts. On top of this I also have an extremely hard time losing weight despite being on medication for my thyroid. After I started taking medication for my thyroid I oddly gained a lot of weight (around 30 pounds in 3 years).

For about 3 weeks now I've started taking a progesterone only pill which seems to have helped with my hunger issues, though I still experience them from time to time. All of the previous symptoms that I was listing (e.g. night sweats) were not experienced while I was on any birth control. It's only very recently that I started taking a progesterone only pill.

So I realize that there are a number of different things going on here and we really can't say what's happening until I'm officially diagnosed by a doctor. I am just looking though for some collective information out there to try to help me on my path to answers. It's been very draining on my end and extremely discouraging when I go through rounds of getting some standard tests done with "normal" numbers and then no answers 😢. If anybody has any ideas please let me know! Some of the information I"ve put above makes me think that at the least I have hormonal imbalance issues with my reproductive hormones, though I don't know at all how these affect things like blood sugar issues and/or insulin.

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