Does AI Give Good Advice for PMOS? | Ep. 160

We're I'm Hormonal--a functional nutrition practice for women, founded by Bridget Walton (NTP, RHP). On this podcast, we help women get to the root cause of their hormone and gut symptoms. Our goal is for you to understand why your health is manifesting the way that it is so you can start building a plan that's actually made for your body. In addition to the podcast, we work with clients virtually across the US, so wherever you're listening from, you're in the right place.

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Whether you're trying to conceive and want your cycle working with you instead of against you, or you're in perimenopause trying to figure out why nothing feels predictable anymore, this show is for you. Each episode digs into the gut-hormone connection, blood sugar as the foundation of hormone health, and what your labs can tell you that a standard panel misses.

In today's episode, I walk you through the advice ChatGPT gave me when I asked it how I should start to support PMOS-related goals. You'll hear me share what I liked and what I thought it missed. Ultimately my hope is that this episode enables you to better use AI tools as well as be able to see where they may fall short. 

Transcript

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Welcome And PMOS Rebrand

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to the I'm Hormonal Podcast. I'm your host, Bridget Walton. I'm so glad that you're here listening today, especially if you're joining me for the first time. Today we are going to be talking more about PMOS, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome. It is the new name for PCOS. If you haven't listened to the last two episodes, I've been talking about what's up with the rebrand. I talked about ovulation and why it's so important to know if you're ovulating, how you can tell if you're ovulating. And today I wanted to do another episode on PMOS because I mean, if you're listening to this podcast, you're you're looking for information about PMOS, and you've probably looked for some of that information or advice through um through an AI tool. And so I was curious myself to type into AI, use Chat GPT, but you know, whichever one you use, it's probably gonna give similar feedback. And um so basically I gave ChatGPT a prompt to say, like, hey, I have PMOS, these are my goals, this these are my symptoms, like what should I do? And yeah, so I'm gonna walk you through what feedback did it give me so I can share with you what are the things that I liked about its recommendations, and then what are the things that it didn't mention that I think are really critical because it's 2026, like AI is absolutely a helpful tool, or it can be a helpful tool if you're using it the right way. Um, but what are the questions that you should be asking beyond that? Um, so it can be maximally helpful for you. So hopefully you think this will be an interesting conversation. I'm excited to get into it in a minute here.

How We Help Clients One-On-One

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Um, I'll just give you a little more information on me and on I'm hormonal if you are new to the gang. So, of course, through the podcast here, we're all about education and information. There is so much that you can do on your own at home to support hormone balance through making changes to your diet and lifestyle, to support your metabolic health. And I want you to do those things. I want you to be empowered and be like, okay, I got this. I know what to do. I know that getting more sleep is so important for me. And you've got this. Now, something else that we do is we work with clients one-on-one who are at that next level who need more guidance and support. So for most folks who are dealing with like something gnarly when it comes to digestive function or have a lot of bloating, have just like significant um overgrowth in their gut microbiome. Those gals, for example, usually need some personalized guidance. Also, if you're listening and you're like, I just want to speed up this journey, like I'm not here to mess around, I don't want to guess anymore. Like, I'm ready to get my hormones back in balance, get my gut back in shape, I'm ready to feel like myself again. Then those are exactly the kind of women that we work with in our practice to use functional lab testing to create a personalized protocol just for you and work through it together. We are your partner through that journey. So that's a little bit about us at I'm Hormonal. This podcast has been here for you for almost three years. I was on a little hiatus earlier this year, but we have um this is episode number 160. So we've got just a couple of resources for you to dive into. Now, let's get back to the topic at hand for today.

The ChatGPT Prompt For PMOS

SPEAKER_00 3:55

I just uh I'm gonna read you the prompt that I gave Chat GPT, and then I'm gonna walk you through what are the things that I liked about what it said and what I think it was missing. I just gave it two prompts because, bro, she goes on for a long time. She got some lengthy responses as we will discuss. Um, so we'll go one by one. Now, the first, uh, the the way I started the conversation with Chat GPT is this. I said, hey, I want to get pregnant within the next year, and I have PMOS, but I'm not sure what I should do to fix my hormones so that I can get pregnant with a healthy baby. And I also have pretty constant bloating, which has been a problem for about a year now. I'm super tired in the afternoons. I sleep usually nine or more hours, but I don't wake up feeling very rested. Where should I start? So that's the end of the prompt that I gave it. And I picked these characteristics because this is what I see a lot with my clients. Like this is all, this is unfortunately a more common experience than what we would hope, what I hope for you at least. So maybe some of this resonates with you. Once I click send, okay, here's what it came back to me

AI Recommendations At A Glance

SPEAKER_00 5:10

with. And let me start with the things that I liked about what it said. Actually, I'm getting I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me give you the highlights for where it recommended that I start, then I'll tell you what I liked about it. So she says, where to start? Number one, make a preconception appointment now with your doctor. Number two, don't ignore the bloating. Number three, your fatigue is also also worth investigating. Four, start a prenatal now. Five, focus on metabolic stability rather than trying to manipulate individual hormones. Six, figure out whether you're actually ovulating. And then it put together like a month-by-month plan for me for what to do for the next three months. And then it for the last note here reiterated one thing not to do, not to like follow some kind of perfect like PCOS hormone balancing protocol. So those are the real highlights. I'll get more into what it explained because it went on at a pretty lengthy, uh, lengthy amount.

What The AI Gets Right

SPEAKER_00 6:16

So the things that I really liked about the recommendations were first, it reiterates that metabolic health is worth taking seriously before pregnancy. Couldn't agree more. If you listen to the previous episodes where I talked about PMOS, or if you're just generally familiar with it, you'll know that metabolic health is at the root of what's going on there. So getting a good grasp on that, which you can do through easy diet and lifestyle changes, that is going to be really important. Um, another thing that I liked, I like that it recommended to start a prenatal now. I think that's something that a lot of clients I work with, or just women I talk to with friends, don't think about. But starting to take a prenatal like three to six months before you um plan to start trying to conceive is a really good idea. There are a lot of nutrients that we just as a population aren't getting through our diet anymore. And so if you're about to 3D print a human being, then you want to make sure that you have, you know, your own nutrient stores kind of filled up to where they should be, because once you are pregnant, right, those resources are going to be going to the baby. And so you want to have adequate resources, right? By that I mean vitamins, minerals, nutrients for baby, but of course, for yourself as well. So I love this recommendation. Now, another thing that I loved is um, this is like the fifth point where it recommends it says focus on metabolic stability rather than trying to manipulate individual hormones. And I love this reframe because it's saying, hey, think less about how do I lower my testosterone or how do I raise progesterone? How do I balance estrogen? So think less about those specific hormone manipulations and think more about are you ovulating? Is your blood sugar good? Are you getting adequate nutrition? Are you sleeping well? Are your cycles functioning normally? Which I take that to mean like, do you have your cycles on a regular, you know, 28 or 32 day um rotation or frequency. So I really liked that. And if you listened to the last episode about ovulating, you know that I will love, like I do love this recommendation where it says, hey girl, figure out if you're actually ovulating. Right. This is one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle. If your periods are not regular, right? If you're not ovulating regularly then. Because of course, like asterisk, if you are on hormonal birth control, there are you know a handful of other reasons why somebody might be bleeding separate from an actual period, but your period, that bleed, is the bleed that follows ovulation generally by about two weeks. So understanding if and when you're actually ovulating is going to be really a key insight into your own health. And of course, key if you are wanting to conceive. Um, let's see here. I do love um one of the last recommendations that it gave where it says, like, hey, don't just don't spend a bunch of time just following like somebody else's PCOS protocol because your symptoms are going to give you more helpful information, right? Like there are so many different ways that PMOS, and I know I'm saying PCOS and PMOS interchangeably in this conversation. We know that they're the same thing, um, or that we're talking about the same set of conditions, but everybody's experience is a little bit different. We're all bioindividual. And so following somebody else's specific plan that worked for them, just following it blindly, is probably not going to best serve you because your body, your health is probably not exactly identical to um your best friend or to um that like probably very intelligent and credible person on Instagram who has good advice, but it just might not be exactly what your body needs. And so I really like that um recommendation here.

When Advice Becomes Overwhelming

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Now, a couple of the things that I didn't love so much, and I'm I want to reiterate that I'm mentioning these because I want this, I want you to be able to think more critically about how you're using AI tools and how they can better serve you. I know that I let's see, where am I at? Did I spend the last nine minutes? How long has it been? Just trying to give you the rundown of what it gave me. And I really hit the wave tops. Like this is a long, long, long, long response for my probably four-sentence prompt. And I don't know about you, but if you're like me or if you're like any average human being, this is just a shit ton of information. Like, this is so, this is so much. Like, are you feeling overwhelmed yet? I would be feeling overwhelmed. I'd be feeling like, oh my gosh, okay, so I have 85,000 things that I need to do. I need to figure out if I'm ovulating, I need to figure out if my metabolic health is good, I need to figure out how I can even tell on a day to day what that means. There are so many suggestions that it gives, which again, not even, you know, they're not necessarily bad suggestions, but when there are so many things to do that we're humans, we only have so much bandwidth. Like most people who listen to podcasts, so talking about you potentially, most people who listen to podcasts, potentially, yourself included, um, are multitasking. You're not just sitting on the couch listening to this doing nothing else. You're on the go. Like, we listen to podcasts because they're productive and we can do multiple things at the same time. And that's a beautiful thing. But I say that to say, do you have the time to do these 85 tasks that are on here just to figure out which one is going to move the needle for you? So that's the first thing that I don't really like. It's just, it's so many recommendations. And what I've seen with my clients before they start working with me is that they're like, there's just so much to consider out there. I don't know where to start. And so they they don't start, right? And again, a very normal human response, but it's not going to best serve you if you are hoping to see changes in your hormone health and in your fertility.

Labs And Bloating Need Specifics

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Now, one other thing or the next thing that I thought could be improved upon here, um, they give some recommendations about what to check for in the preconception appointment. And so some of these things are pretty standard, right? I'll just reiterate what they suggest asking for, but they suggest asking um for a complete blood count and ferritin and iron panel, thyroid panel, um, A1C andor glucose testing is what it said. And I want to call out this one here because um understanding what your fasting glucose is, that's a really helpful piece of data. Knowing what your A1C or your hemoglobin A1C is, that's an indicator of on average over the last three months what was your blood sugar at? That's really helpful. It doesn't mention on here insulin. And I think that can be really, really strategic to understand. Well, as far as insulin resistance or your insulin sensitivity, um, where are you at? So asking for a fasting insulin marker to be tested for, that can be really helpful too. Um, a couple of final mentions here. They mention testing for vitamin B12 and vitamin D, depending on your diet history. And then finally asking for a comprehensive metabolic panel, which is another one that's pretty standard. So I like that they give you some of the specifics and they're explaining why, but I think when it comes to metabolic health, when it comes to PMOS, you need a little bit more data. And so asking for that fasting insulin number can help you to get a better idea of okay, like what's really going on here behind the scenes. The next thing that I'd love you to think more about is um how they talked about bloating. So I just gave you the the headline here that its tip was don't ignore the bloating, which is really actually not a tip at all. It you already know that. You typed the prompt in there, you've identified that it's an issue. And ChatGPT couldn't give you something, or you know, couldn't give me something specific to to focus on, right? Um how could it? I don't know, maybe it could have asked you more questions. Maybe that's something you can think about. You could, in your next, in your response to this message, say, okay, well, what are ask me some questions that can help us understand more about uh what could be the cause of bloating. Or ask me questions that a functional health practitioner or that a functional nutritionist would ask me about my bloating, so we can understand more about the root cause, right? If you've listened to the podcast before, or if you've worked with me one-on-one, you know that understanding what the root cause is of whatever imbalance you're experiencing, that's so important, right? If you're not thinking about the root cause, then you're more likely just focusing on those kind of band-aid cover-ups. Or even if it's not a band-aid, it's just you're not getting to the real root of the problem. That's what's going to move the needle and keep it in the position that you want it to be. So I'm unimpressed by ChatGPT's guidance as far as gut health goes. Again, just knowing how absolutely key your gut health is for your hormone health, for your, well, for your digestion, but for every other component of your body, for your metabolic health. It's just like I can't I can't say it enough. Okay. Apparently couldn't find any other words to say about it either, but this is so important. Um I wanna say too, sometimes actually let me take

Better Prompts To Get Clarity

SPEAKER_00 17:28

a step back. So how how does chat GPT work? Like how do large long large language models work? And that is by really just predicting like what is the next best letter, like next word that is the best fit. So, I mean, I don't like work in tech or AI, so take my explanation with a grain of salt, but you know, this large language model is trained on a data set, so like, you know, X amount of information that's out there on the internet, and it's just predicting what's the next best word. And so that's why it's giving you suggestions, but they're not tailored, they're not tailored to you, right? So why am I saying this? I'm saying this because the next thing that I wanted you to um have your attention drawn to is when I want you to note when ChatGPT is giving you some really broad recommendations that don't actually serve you, right? If you if you're going to ChatGPT and you're saying, what should I do about X, Y, or Z, and they give you a couple of concise recommendations that you can actually take action on, great. But in this case, you know, Chat GPT says, okay, number three, your fatigue is also worth investigating. Like, thanks. I know that's why I told you about it. And it basically reiterates if you're waking up on refresh, that's a problem. And I would want to rule out, and it gives like 18 ideas of what you can rule out. Now why am I saying this? I'm again saying this to say that if you are trying to get a couple ideas of where to start and it's too much, the feedback or what you can even put in your original prompt is say, uh, tell me what are the three most impactful changes that I can make in the next seven days, and what are the five most impactful changes that I can make this month in order to prevent yourself from being in this like decision paralysis analysis paralysis phase where there are too many recommendations.

Building A Three Month Plan

SPEAKER_00 19:56

All right, let's move along to um message number two. After I sent a prompt, I said, okay, great, cool. I will track the information that you suggested and help me build a plan for the next three months around nutrition changes and some lifestyle or routine shifts that will be helpful. Again, for you, if you're doing this, I would put in a prompt, put into the prompt more specific guidance around how much you want it to recommend to you because it's going to give you a lot of recommendations. Um, but I want to talk about a couple of the things that I really liked. And one thing that it told me as it was putting together this plan, it says the point isn't that these foods are magically PCOS foods. It's that combining protein, fiber, fat, and carbs tends to make meals more satisfying and supports steadier glucose responses than building them primarily around refined carbs. Okay, we love this. This is such a great reminder. I think that it is really easy. It's easy for me. I mean, unfortunately, as somebody who puts together a podcast to say, okay, eat these, eat these five foods. I'm making these up right now. Eat asparagus, apricots, sweet potatoes, um, olive oil, and lentils. And it's gonna be super good for you. And it is not untrue, those foods are good for you, they have good nutrients. That being said, there aren't magical foods that are going to really do the trick. Focusing on well-balanced meals, focusing on incorporating a variety of plants. By plants, I let me clarify, I mean like whole foods. Um, whole food with no ingredient list on it. It's just the item of produce. The ingredient list is there is none because it's just the leek or the garlic or whatever you've got. Those are gonna be the best things to focus on, focusing on incorporating those, incorporating um. Healthy oils incorporating salmon and chicken. Again, I don't mean to be mentioning specific things, but if it is a whole food, the ingredient list on it is just that one thing that it is, then you're gonna be in good shape. You should eat what you like newsflesh, because if you don't like it, you're not actually going to eat it, and that's not going to benefit you. So don't be don't be bamboozled by whatever pops up on on Google or any specific foods that AI might suggest to you. Um focus on what you like, what is a whole food, and focus on getting a good variety variety in. And I think that'll be a really great place to start to start.

Protein Breakfast And Training Basics

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Another thing that I liked is that it reiterated in particularly big font, don't skip breakfast or lunch if your energy levels are crashing in the afternoon. I think this is a really helpful reminder. Sometimes we get a little bit busy. Sometimes we think, okay, I've heard that fasting is good for me. I'm gonna just not have breakfast today. But if you were trying to get your hormones back in balance, then fasting might not be best suited for you right now. And I would really encourage you to eat a protein-forward breakfast. On that note, let's see what it recommended for breakfast. Says about its first suggestion says to have two eggs, avocado, sourdough, and berries. An egg has maybe seven grams of protein in it. So this is about 15 grams of protein tops for this meal. I would argue that that is not enough. Uh, I don't know you, I don't know how big you are, I don't know how active you are. Um, but I would love for you to shoot for having 25, 30 grams of protein in your breakfast and see how that feels. Like see how close to that you can work up to. Lately for breakfast, I've been eating um, I'll scramble eggs and cottage cheese together. Like I'll do a lower fat cottage cheese. Sometimes I'll slice chicken sausage and put it in there. Sometimes I'll add onions and spinach. It's very good. It's very tasty. It has like bonkers' amount of protein in it somehow. I guess if we do two eggs and gosh, I don't know actually how much. It's a quarter of a container. So I think it's four ounces of cottage cheese. Um, it's over 40 grams of protein. Or maybe you're somebody, you know, you have your coffee every morning and you want to add some scoops of collagen, that can be another great way to get more protein in the morning. So really try to stack your breakfast. That's gonna work well for you. Okay. Let me walk you through something else that I really liked. It's gonna suggest, um, they suggested to me an exercise framework to go with of doing two to three strength workouts per week and 150-ish minutes per week of moderate movement. So I like that it gave me a range. And then ultimately what it did was it suggested to me a couple of potential days, like what would my morning, what would my midday, what would my evening routines look like, in order to actually implement these suggestions that it made.

Why Humans Still Matter

SPEAKER_00 25:37

As we get ready to wrap up this conversation about using AI tools to support your health, right? I'll just reiterate that it can give you some good context, it can give you some good starting places, it can give you some good suggestions about meals, about how to implement new routines in your day. And those can be really helpful points. But one thing that AI just inherently cannot do for you is provide that human-to-human connection. Um it's not the best at keeping you accountable, right? Or you'll have to figure out a way to be accountable to it if that's what you want. But that is a great opportunity to have an actual human in your actual life to be your buddy and fill that role, to like have an accountability or somebody to talk to, to at least say your goals out loud, knowing that your sister or your mom or your dad or your cousin or your friend or your neighbor or whoever is maybe gonna ask you about it later and check in with you on it, because you know it's those small things that can sometimes be big things that will keep us on track with your goals. So all of this is to say they have some good suggestions, they have some really good reframes, and I think that's important. I'm I think this is great that we live in a day and age where we have access to tools that can help you put together a workout plan or you know, all these things help you understand how can you better track your ovulation or symptoms about your uh rather signs about your cycle. Um, but when it comes to one, getting a really personalized approach, it can't offer that as well. Two, if you don't know the right questions to ask it, if you don't know the additional context that might be relevant, it doesn't always know to ask you those questions either. And so that can keep you kind of spinning, spinning um uh like on a hamster wheel, right? So um I hope that this conversation was helpful to listen to. I would love to know if you have any thoughts on this or if you've used ChatGPT

Share Your AI Experience

SPEAKER_00 28:04

or another tool to put together a plan like this. Like how did it work for you? Did you like it? What didn't you like? Um, what surprised you? I would love to hear from you on Instagram. You can find me at I'm underscore hormonal. And that's it for today. I think this is the final episode um in this kind of series where we'll talk about PMOS, but I'll be back soon with more. And thank you so much for listening. I'll see you on the next one.