PCOS + Fibromyalgia: When Your Symptoms Don’t Fit One Box 

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Originally shared in Episode 184 of the Fibromyalgia Podcast^®, adapted for readers of The Fibro Compass℠.

If your symptoms don’t fit neatly into one diagnosis… you’re probably dealing with more than one layer of what’s going on in your body.

When Your Fibromyalgia Symptoms Don’t Add Up

If you have fibromyalgia and feel like you’re doing the right things — taking care of your body, following what you’ve been told should work — and yet things still aren’t improving the way they should…

You’re not imagining it.
This is something we see all the time.

When symptoms don’t fit neatly into one diagnosis, it usually means something has been missed.

Fibromyalgia is complicated — but when everything gets blamed on fibromyalgia alone, other pieces of the puzzle often get overlooked and left untreated.

One of the missing pieces we see fairly often is Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), now known as Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS). Since this interview was recorded before the name change, we'll continue using PCOS throughout this article.

At first glance, this condition might seem like a completely separate issue from fibromyalgia.

But it’s not.

In fact, they overlap far more than most people realize.

Research shows that fibromyalgia occurs in 32–41% of women with PCOS — compared to only 7.7% in the general population.

That means women with PCOS are 4–5 times more likely to also have fibromyalgia.

This isn’t an either/or situation. It’s very often both — and your body needs you to address both in order to feel your best.

In Episode 184 of the Fibromyalgia Podcast^®, I sat down with PCOS expert Lindsie Vizethann. Lindsie is a nurse, health coach, podcast host, and author who specializes in helping women with PCOS move beyond their diagnosis by understanding the messages behind their symptoms — especially those who’ve felt dismissed, frustrated, or told to just live with it.

Lindsie brings decades of insight as we talk about how her background as an ER nurse and personal diagnoses of lupus and celiac disease has shaped her work as a health coach — and how she helps women with PCOS find answers and their own Healthy Ever After.

What this conversation really highlights

This is something Lindsie experienced firsthand.

After nearly 20 years working in healthcare, she found herself burned out — watching patients cycle through the system without real answers.

At the same time, her own body was starting to break down. Joint pain, gut issues, and symptoms that didn’t make sense at first… until they became impossible to ignore.

She thought, "What if this isn’t all there is?"

That experience — and question — led her to start looking at health differently — not as isolated symptoms, but as a connected system.

While Lindsie and I do different types of work, our foundational beliefs are very similar:

There is life beyond your diagnosis. Just because you're being told, "this is all we can do for you"... there's so much more that can be done. You just need the right help.

One of the biggest themes from my conversation with Lindsie is this:
most women are only being given pieces of the puzzle — not the full picture.

Focus on hormones.
Lose weight.
Take this medication.

You’ve probably done it yourself — Googled symptoms, searched lab results, tried to connect the dots, and wondered if there’s something everyone else is missing.

But no one is stepping back and asking:

How is your body actually functioning as a whole?

The problem with addressing things in a fragmented way is that you can be putting in a lot of effort and still not see real change.

And when that doesn’t work, you’re left thinking it must be you.

When symptoms overlap, it gets confusing

The criteria to be diagnosed with PCOS include:

• ovarian cysts
• elevated androgens (male hormones, such as testosterone)
• irregular menstrual cycles

This can lead to symptoms that are both unique to PCOS or overlapping with fibromyalgia, such as:

• acne
• hair growth, especially in places like the face, back, arms
• infertility
• fatigue where you can hardly get through your day
• brain fog
• weight gain, especially around the midsection
• inability to lose weight, no matter what you try
• hormonal symptoms
• mood shifts
• feeling “off” in your body

Looking at that list, you can probably see why things get tricky. It would be easy to assume that many of these symptoms are "just fibromyalgia.”

A Common Pattern in Fibromyalgia (And Why Symptoms Get Missed)

There are real things going wrong in your body. Unfortunately, they often get lumped together under one label.

When that happens, two very important things go wrong:

1. You don’t get clarity on what’s actually causing which symptoms — and therefore miss treating very treatable conditions.
2. The strategies you’re using don’t fully work — because they’re not targeting the whole picture.

For many women, this shows up as being passed from provider to provider — or feeling dismissed when tests come back “normal,” even though you know something isn’t right. At worst, we risk being labeled as "drug seekers."

Lindsie describes her experience as a nurse, "I would see these women in the ER. We didn't know what to do for them. You would see the body image issues — and I think the anxiety and depression that they were dealing with too, even just that short time that I would be with them in the ER."

She goes on to say,

"Once you start doing the research, I realized how much this community needs to be heard. They need an advocate. They need to know that they can heal. There is life on the other side and they're not limited by that diagnosis."

Why Trying Harder Doesn’t Fix Fibromyalgia or PCOS Symptoms

Since weight gain is such a key symptom with PCOS, many women feel like they're tried all the diets — Weight Watchers, keto, carnivore, "cutting calories and moving more," working with a dietitian or nutritionist...

And they still feel stuck.

As Lindsie sees in her work with women with PCOS — and I see in our fibromyalgia clients — many cycle through approach after approach while remaining stuck, because no one has helped them understand what their body actually needs first.

This isn’t a willpower problem.
And it’s not that you’re doing something wrong.

It’s that no one has helped you uncover what your body actually needs first.

I'm not talking about what works for other people or even most people — but what you need as a unique individual.

Without this, any approach you take will be incomplete.

What Actually Helps Fibromyalgia and PCOS Symptoms Improve

So many women are trying to do the right things, but without the foundation in place for those strategies to actually work.

So, instead of jumping straight into restriction or control, Lindsie and I both begin by helping our clients add in new healthy things. It's a shift in perspective and approach that helps to calm your overactive nervous system, lowering your stress response.

Stabilize your body first

"You can't heal... unless your body feels safe." — Lindsie Vizethann

Stabilizing your body first may simply mean taking a big deep breath, or adding in the nutrients and support your body has been missing.

This is the same concept behind the Fibro Hierarchy of Needs℠. If your body isn’t stable yet, adding in more stress (exercise) and taking away nutrients (dieting) won’t work — and will likely make the problem worse.

Look at the full picture

This is where most people get stuck — trying to fix one piece, without realizing how connected everything actually is.

Not just hormones.
Not just pain.
Not just weight.

But the full picture, including:

• Nervous system
• Physical stability
• Lifestyle patterns
• Nutrition
• Stress load and mental health

Because these are all only parts. No one thing will be a magic bullet for you.

Pay attention to what your body is telling you

This was a major theme in Lindsie’s own health journey — learning to listen to her body instead of pushing through or overriding what it was telling her — ultimately leading to her diagnoses of lupus and celiac.

"Your body isn’t broken. It’s a messenger. And it's telling you something." — Lindsie Vizethann

While it might sometimes feel like it, your body isn’t just being random or dramatic.

It’s communicating something.

When you can start paying attention to those patterns instead of pushing through them, you can begin to hear what your body is saying.

In my training programs, every lesson and every homework assignment is designed to help you tune back in to what your body is saying — and it's what Lindsie does with her PCOS clients too.

The part most people miss

When something isn’t improving, it doesn’t mean you're doing the wrong things or that you need to try harder — and it doesn't always mean what you're doing isn't working. Counterintuitive, right?

Sometimes it means:

• There’s another layer that hasn’t been identified yet
• Your body isn’t ready for the strategy you’re using
• Another overlapping condition (like PCOS) needs to be addressed more fully

Until those things change, nothing else will fully click.

Final thought

If your symptoms don’t fit neatly into one box, that’s not a problem.

It’s information.

And all information is good information.

The more clearly you understand what’s actually going on in your body, the easier it becomes to move forward.

There is a life beyond your diagnosis — and it starts with seeing the full picture.

Learn more about Lindsie and connect with her through the resources below.

Connect with Lindsie

• Listen to the PCOS Unfiltered podcast
• Get her book, Healing Beyond the Diagnosis
• Subscribe to her newsletter on Substack
• Follow her on Instagram
• Follow her on Facebook
• Connect with her on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to her YouTube channel