PCOS Masterclass

Nearly one in two women today has some form of PCOS, and up to a third don’t know it — yet PCOS is routinely treated as one condition with one protocol: birth control pills, metformin, and a generic “lose weight” instruction. In functional medicine, PCOS isn’t one disease. It’s a downstream presentation of at least four distinct root-cause phenotypes — insulin-resistant/obese, lean, inflammatory, and adrenal — and treating all four the same way is why so many patients feel stuck.

This masterclass, part of the AIC Functional Medicine Training Program, teaches a practical phenotype classification system: how to identify which type (or overlapping types) a patient presents with from history and exam alone, which lab panel to run for each (fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, LH/FSH ratio, DHEA-S, morning cortisol or a DUTCH test, hsCRP, AMH, and — for complex or stuck cases — GI-MAP, comprehensive stool testing, and MTHFR/COMT gene testing), and how to sequence treatment correctly: foundation first (diet, sleep, stress), then nutraceuticals matched to phenotype, then conventional treatment only where genuinely needed.

The session walks through each phenotype in clinical detail — insulin-resistant and obese PCOS (myo-inositol, metformin thresholds, low-GI diet), lean PCOS (gut-brain axis correction, adrenal support, no aggressive exercise or fasting), inflammatory PCOS (elimination diet, omega-3, curcumin, gut repair), and adrenal PCOS (DHEA-S, cortisol correction, vitex, saw palmetto, red light therapy) — plus advanced material on estrogen dominance and liver detoxification, the progesterone-estrogen ratio, seed cycling, bioidentical hormone therapy, and adjunct interventions like IV nutrient drips, colon hydrotherapy, HBOT, and ECP sessions for severely dysregulated cases. Real case studies (regularized cycles, reduced HOMA-IR, natural conception after failed IUI) are used throughout to show what phenotype-matched treatment actually looks like in practice.

The depth, terminology, and case-based teaching are calibrated for a practitioner audience, though informed patients who want a clinical-depth understanding of their own PCOS presentation are welcome to enroll.

PCOS isn’t one condition — it’s at least four different root-cause presentations wearing the same diagnostic label, and that’s exactly why generic protocols so often fail. This masterclass gives practitioners a practical phenotype classification system, the right testing panel for each type, and a sequencing framework — foundation first, phenotype-matched nutraceuticals second, conventional treatment only where needed — that turns PCOS from a frustrating, one-size-fits-all diagnosis into a solvable, individualized case, as part of the AIC Functional Medicine Training Program. Informed patients auditing this course will walk away with a clearer, evidence-grounded picture too — but the training is built, first, for the practitioner in the room.