Article: If you carefully plan what you're going to eat each day for a week, you can shop only for the ingredients in those meals. The planning makes it easier to track your sodium intake, because you won't have unknown items that you have to calculate after the fact. You may have already started a food diary so you could estimate your salt intake. Continuing to use your food diary can make it easier to plan your meals and stick to that plan. It's a good idea to go through your fridge and pantry and get rid of snacks and high-sodium foods, so they won't tempt you. This is particularly important if you're trying to cut back on sodium in your diet. On packaged and processed foods, you'll find a nutrition label that indicates the sodium content of an individual serving of that food product. Choose foods that are low in sodium or have no salt added. Keep in mind that different brands of the same food product may have different amounts of sodium. Generally, you want to choose the brand that has the lowest sodium. Frozen vegetables have lower sodium than canned vegetables, and many frozen vegetables may have no sodium at all. Watch out for sodium particularly in foods that you normally wouldn't consider salty, such as bread, rolls, and cookies. Salt often is used as a preservative, and is used in baked goods as well. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, mandate color-coded labels to help you choose low-sodium foods. If you live in such a country, look for labels with a color that corresponds with the lowest levels of sodium. Nutrition labels provide sodium content for packaged food products based on individual serving sizes. To adequately and correctly track your salt intake, you must ensure you're eating no more than a single portion. The amount of food that is considered an individual serving will be listed on the nutrition label. Use a measuring cup, measuring spoon, or a food scale to determine how much food equals a serving. You can also estimate the portion sizes of certain foods. The sodium content listed on the box is the content for a single serving. If you eat more than 1 serving, you need to multiply that amount by the number of servings you've consumed. For example, if the bowl of cereal you normally eat for breakfast actually equates to 2 individual servings, you would need to multiply the sodium amount on the cereal box's nutritional label by 2. Sodium can sneak into meals you make at home, even if you don't add salt specifically. Make sure you've determined the sodium content for all the various ingredients in a recipe so you can account for it properly. If you've purchased whole foods that didn't come in a package with a nutritional label, you may have to do additional research online to determine the sodium content of that food. When you total the sodium for ingredients in an entire recipe, don't forget to divide by the number of servings. For example, if you made a casserole and ate 1/4 of it, you would take the total amount of sodium included in the casserole's ingredients and divide by 4 to find your personal sodium intake. Don't forget to include any table salt, garlic salt, onion salt, or any other seasonings you use in the recipe that contain sodium, or that you sprinkle on the food before you eat it. While you may be able to track the exact amount of sodium you consume, you'll have to go 1 step further if you also want to find out exactly how much salt you're consuming. Generally, you probably want to track your sodium intake for at least a week. Get your sodium total, then divide by 7 to get your average daily sodium intake. This will be a more accurate number than if you simply track your sodium intake for 1 day. Once you have your daily sodium intake number, multiply that number by 2.5. The result is your salt intake.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Plan your meals in advance. Inspect nutrition labels closely. Measure proper portions. Total sodium for ingredients. Use your sodium numbers to calculate your salt intake.

If you have PCOS, you will likely have irregular, infrequent, or no menstrual period. Look for noticeable menstrual irregularities, including long intervals between menstrual periods, the prolonged absence of menstrual periods, very heavy or very light menstrual periods, and bleeding between menstrual periods. Check for the following: Length of time between periods is longer than 35 days Fewer than 8 periods per year No period for 4 months or longer Lengths of time when you have either very light or very heavy periods Studies show that about 50% of women with PCOS have prolonged intervals between their menstrual periods (this is known as oligomenorrhea). About 20% of women with PCOS have no menstrual periods (this is known as amenorrhoea). Infrequent or irregular ovulation is called oligoovulation. Anovulation is the complete absence of ovulation. If you suspect that you are not ovulating whether the root of the problem turns out to be PCOS or something else you should see a doctor. Healthy women have small amounts of androgens ("male" hormones) present in their bodies. Polycystic ovaries tend to produce larger amounts of androgens due to higher levels of the luteinizing hormone (normal levels of this hormone regulate the menstrual cycle and the production of eggs) and insulin. This problem may produce upsetting symptoms, including increased facial and body hair. This is called hirsutism. Extra hair might grow on your face, stomach, toes, thumbs, chest or back. Increased androgens in the body may also cause hair loss, thinning hair, or male pattern baldness. You may lose hair gradually. Check for more than normal amounts of hair in the shower drain, for example. Hyperandrogenism (increased androgens) may also cause oily skin with increased acne. You may also experience dandruff, which is a scalp condition in which skin flakes off. Dandruff A polycystic ovary is an ovary with more than 12 cysts, each measuring 2 to 9 millimeters in diameter. The cysts are located around the periphery of the ovary, leading to an increase in ovarian volume. In some cases, you may need surgery to remove these cysts. To determine if you have polycystic ovaries, your doctor will need to order an ultrasound. You should have a reproductive endocrinologist review the results of your ultrasound. A reproductive endocrinologist specializes in reproductive and fertility issues, such as PCOS, endometriosis, in-vitro fertilization and uterine abnormalities. If the ultrasound is reviewed by a non-specialist, a polycystic ovary is often called 'normal,' meaning no tumor is seen. This is because this doctor is not trained to see specific abnormalities. Sometimes, doctors might misdiagnose the problem, or suggest that the patient exercise more to lose the weight caused by PCOS.
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One-sentence summary --
Track your period. Look for increased facial and body hair. Monitor for hair loss and baldness. Look for oily skin, acne or dandruff. Ask your doctor about polycystic ovaries.