I’m Layana.
A molecular bioengineer, a footballer, and someone who lived this condition before she studied it.
- MEng Molecular Bioengineering, Imperial College LondonResearch project on PCOS mechanisms and hormonal signalling
- Diagnosed myself, before university15 kg lost, androgens back in range, cravings gone
- FootballerI played through this myself and rebuilt my training around it
- Arabic, English & FrenchCoaching in whichever one you think in
- Between Beirut and LondonSessions online or in person
I was diagnosed with PCOS before I started university, after gaining weight I couldn’t explain. I was handed birth control and metformin and no explanation of what either was doing to me. I took them. I felt worse. The cravings never stopped. Every doctor I saw after that offered me the same two things.
So I went and learned it myself. I read the mechanisms until I understood what was actually happening inside my own body, and then I started changing things. Over time the symptoms went. I lost the 15 kilos. My androgen levels came back into range. And the cravings I had been told were a willpower problem simply stopped, once the metabolism underneath them was working again.
Then I studied Molecular Bioengineering at Imperial College London, and chose PCOS for my research project, going deep into the mechanisms and how the hormones drive each other. I didn’t pick that topic by accident. I picked it because I had lived it, and I wanted to do work that would actually matter to women in the same position.
I still work at this every day. It is not something you fix once and forget. But it is something you can understand, and once you understand it, it stops running your life.
If you train
I play football. I’ve gone through training loads, match weeks and recovery with this condition in my body, so I know the thing nobody warns you about. The standard advice for PMOS is to eat less and move more, which is close to the opposite of what an athlete needs, and following it will wreck your performance long before it touches your symptoms.
Training is one of the strongest levers that exists for insulin sensitivity. Used properly, your sport becomes part of the treatment. Used the way most women with PMOS are told to use it, it becomes another form of restriction.
- Fuelling for your sessions instead of under-eating around them
- Reading your cycle as training data rather than an inconvenience
- Strength work chosen to improve insulin sensitivity, not just burn calories
- Sleep, recovery and stress load, which move your hormones as much as any meal
- What changes in season, when the plan has to bend around fixtures
Start with a conversation
Tell me a little about what’s going on and what you’ve already tried. We start with a free 15-minute intro call, and go from there. I answer messages myself, usually within a day.