PCOS · Stockton Heath, Cheshire
Your PCOS isn’t her PCOS.
It presents differently in different people, which is exactly why it gets missed, and exactly why the advice you were given never quite fitted.We find out which version is yours.
Acupuncture and bloodwork review in Stockton Heath. Fasting insulin, glucose, HbA1c, androgens and inflammatory markers, read together rather than one at a time.
Not sure what you need? Book a free 15 minute call
Before any of the practical bits
You are not the reason this hasn’t worked.
You have almost certainly been told to lose weight. More than once, in more than 1 room, often in a short appointment, before anyone had looked properly at your hormones.
Maybe you did. Maybe it did not work. Maybe it worked and nothing changed. Maybe you have been at it since you were 19, when somebody told you that you would probably struggle to have children, and then sent you away to think about that for the next decade.
This is the condition where the advice and the accusation are the same sentence. So before anything else: you are not lazy, you did not cause this, and you are not the reason nothing has shifted.
Far more likely, nobody ever worked out which version of this you have.
What you’ve been told
A decade of advice. Not much of it about you.
“Just lose a bit of weight.” “Go on the pill, it’ll regulate you.” “You’ve got cysts on your ovaries.” “You’ll probably need help to conceive.” “You can’t have PCOS, you’re not overweight.” “Come back when you want to get pregnant.” “It’s just something you’ll have to manage.”
Every 1 of those is a sentence for a general PCOS patient. There is no such thing as a general PCOS patient.
And here is the part worth knowing: your GP has not been ignoring the rules. Until this December, there haven’t been any.
The bit worth knowing
The UK has never had a NICE guideline for PCOS. The first one lands in December.
PCOS is the most common endocrine condition in women of reproductive age. It affects roughly 1 in 8. And there has never been a NICE guideline telling UK doctors how to assess or manage it.
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→NICE has no PCOS guideline. Its first, Polycystic ovary syndrome: assessment and management, is due on 9 December 2026.
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→The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists withdrew its own PCOS guidance in 2024.
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→UK doctors have been pointed towards the 2023 international guideline instead, which is excellent, and which is a lot to fit into a standard GP appointment.
This is not a scandal and it is not anybody being lazy. It is the reason your care has been so variable, why your diagnosis took years, why the woman next to you at work got completely different advice, and why you may never have been told which version of this you have. There was no national instruction to do it.
Which is exactly why we do. It is the whole job.
Want to know which version you have?
That is the conversation. Your bloods, your cycle, your history and your symptoms, read as one picture instead of a list of separate results. Anything you send us needs to be dated within the last 12 weeks.
2 ways to start
How we can help with PCOS.
Pick the one that fits where you are now. They work well together: the bloods show us where to focus, and acupuncture is the support week to week.
Best place to start
Bloodwork review
A proper look at your bloods
Fasting insulin, glucose, androgens and inflammatory markers read together, so we can see which version of PCOS you are dealing with.
- Fertility Brew & Review, 60 min£140
- Both on Board, couples, 75 min£185
Fertility acupuncture
Regular support, every step
Regular sessions to support your cycle and your stress levels, tailored to your version of PCOS rather than a general plan.
- First appointment, 75 min£75
- Follow ups, 60 min£59
Not sure which is right for you? Book a free 15 minute call and we will point you the right way.
Who you’d see
A person, not a clinic.
Our acupuncture team
7 registered practitioners
For acupuncture you will see 1 of our 7 practitioners, and then you will see her again. 40 years between us, all of it in this room, none of us willing to call something normal just because it is common.
Gaynor Almond
Fertility specialist · bloodwork & emotional support
Gaynor runs our Fertility Brew & Review, Both on Board and Menopause Review & Renew, reading insulin, glucose, HbA1c, androgens and inflammatory markers against optimal ranges. She also offers emotional support: a mix of talking therapy and hypnotherapy.
Georgia
Functional nutritionist
Georgia looks at your dietary habits and lifestyle and builds a personalised eating plan around them, which is particularly powerful for the insulin and metabolic side of PCOS.
Good to know
Questions people ask
It does. On 12 May 2026 it was formally renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome, or PMOS, by a coalition of more than 50 patient and professional organisations. Nothing about your diagnosis or your treatment changes. It is the same condition, and your existing diagnosis carries straight across. The old name was dropped because it was inaccurate, it implied ovarian cysts, and it hid the hormonal and metabolic reality of the condition. Both names will be in use for a few years while everything catches up.
Almost certainly not, in the way you have been picturing. What shows on a scan is follicles that started developing and stalled, not pathological cysts. Research published alongside the name change found no increase in abnormal ovarian cysts in the condition. It probably was not explained to you because, for 90 years, the name did the explaining.
Partly because you probably do not have the same thing. PCOS is diagnosed on a 2 out of 3 basis, which produces 4 different presentations with different hormone and metabolic patterns. And partly because the UK has had no NICE guideline for it. The first one is due on 9 December 2026, and the RCOG withdrew its guidance in 2024. There has been no national instruction, so care varies depending on who you happen to see.
That happens a great deal and it is why lean PCOS gets missed for years. Weight is one presentation of 1 version of this. It is not the condition, and it is not part of the diagnostic criteria. If everything else fits and it was ruled out because of your size, it is worth looking further.
Not routinely, no. Glucose is the standard test, and glucose can look completely fine for years while insulin works twice as hard behind the scenes to keep it there. If fasting insulin has never been run, then nothing has been ruled in or out. Gaynor looks at fasting insulin, glucose and HbA1c together in the review, alongside androgens and inflammatory markers.
Your first appointment is £75 and lasts 75 minutes. That includes a full consultation, going through your history properly, and a treatment in the same session. Follow ups after that are £59 for 60 minutes. If your partner comes with you, they can have auricular (ear) acupuncture alongside your treatment for an extra £10.
Find out which version is yours.
Start wherever feels manageable. If you have no idea what you need, or you have no bloods at all, start with the call. It is 15 minutes and it costs nothing.
Book acupuncture£75 first appt, 75 min · then £59, 60 min Fertility Brew & Reviewindividuals · £140 · 60 min Both on Boardcouples · £185 · 75 min Free 15 minute callno pressure, no jargon
Or call us on 01925 612 208 · 30a London Road, Stockton Heath, Warrington WA4 6HN