For nearly a decade, Aida Azizii struggled with a hormonal disorder that affects millions of women across the United States, fighting a constant battle with her weight.

The personal assistant says she tried everything from prescription medications to changes in her diet to manage her polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

An estimated one in ten women has the condition, which can cause excess facial hair, irregular menstrual cycles and weight gain.

After being diagnosed at 16, doctors prescribed Aida metformin. While it initially helped her lose some weight, she experienced debilitating side effects, including nausea, and was eventually forced to stop taking the medication.

She says: 'After that my weight spiraled. I was eating more and gaining more weight. I always felt starving.'

By age 25, she weighed 294 pounds and wore a US size 18 dress, and knew something had to change.

'I always wore black to hide my figure,' she says. 'I never took photos of myself because I was ashamed.

'People would call me fat when I posted photos on Instagram, so I started hiding my body. But you could still tell from my face how much weight I'd gained.'

Then she stumbled across a little-known supplement that can cost as little as 7-cents a day that women were raving about online: inositol.

Aida says she first read about inositol six months earlier. 'I'd tried everything else, and saw this was a natural supplement and it had helped loads of other women. So I asked my doctor, and she said to go for it.'

At first she took a single capsule containing 1 gram of inositol. Within weeks, she noticed a change.

'I stopped getting cravings for sugary foods,' she says.

As the weight came off, she gained the confidence to start going to the gym and gradually increased her dose to four capsules a day – the amount shown in studies to help with weight loss.

After a year, she had lost 126 pounds, dropping from 294 pounds to 168 pounds, and from a US dress size 18 to a size 6.

'Inositol changed my life. I'd tried everything, from prescription medications to every diet you can imagine, and nothing worked like this,' says Aida.

Now research suggests the supplement really may help women with PCOS.

This week, a review of studies published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology involving more than 400 patients lent support to the theory behind the anecdotal reports.

The researchers found that the supplement may help rebalance hormones in women with PCOS.

In theory, they say, this could mean it has the potential to ease a range of symptoms, from excess hair growth to fertility problems, although they conclude that more research is needed to confirm these benefits.

Sometimes referred to as vitamin B8, inositol is a naturally occurring sugar-like compound that we consume in small amounts through our diet and is thought to help regulate hormone levels.

Capsules containing concentrated doses have long been touted by natural health enthusiasts as a way to suppress appetite and curb cravings. Others claim they can boost fertility and relieve certain types of pain.

Medical researchers began studying inositol about a decade ago, believing it might have effects similar to the prescription medication metformin, which lowers blood sugar and is commonly prescribed for people with type 2 diabetes.

'Inositol and metformin both influence levels of insulin, the hormone that controls the amount of sugar in your blood,' says Dr. Channa Jayasena, a reproductive endocrinologist at Imperial College London.

'There's growing acceptance in the medical community that inositol has some genuine weight-loss effects, so it's not surprising that it's catching on.'

One trial published in 2017 found that women with PCOS who were given inositol experienced similar weight loss to those given metformin.

And an analysis of nine trials, also published in 2017, concluded that women with the condition who took inositol for more than 24 weeks were more likely to experience metabolic improvements – including weight loss and lower blood sugar – than those who did not.

Many hospitals in the UK now recommend inositol for patients with polycystic ovary syndrome. 'I advised two patients to start taking myo-inositol [a common form of the supplement] this week,' says Dr. Jayasena.

Not all doctors are convinced, however. 'Research only really took off about a decade ago, and I still don't think there's enough evidence to say anything definitive,' says Professor Naveed Sattar, a metabolic expert at the University of Glasgow.

He adds: 'It's possible that people who take inositol and believe they've lost weight are actually just dieting and exercising more, but attribute the changes to the supplement.'