Today, I want to give you information about the polycystic ovary syndrome. Hoping to answer your questions and prepare you for a visit with your health care provider. I have a lot of patients. When they finally come to see me, they are really frustrated because they don’t know if they really have or if they don’t have PCOS. They don’t know the criteria and they get confused. Also treatments, they don’t necessarily understand why some treatments are offered. Since it’s a lot of hormonal dysfunctions or dysregulation, we often have treatments that play on hormones. And a lot of frustration, I think, comes from the lack of information given to the patient.
Polycystic ovary syndrome was first diagnosed or first described to be a reproductive health problem, but now we know it’s more an endocrinologic problem, meaning it is affecting organs that secrete hormones like the pancreas and ovaries. It’s about 5 to 10% of women in childbearing age that are having polycystic ovary syndrome. And with patients with fertility issues, it’s 15 to 20%. It’s sadly a long-lasting disease that is linked with a lot of other diseases that we call co-morbidities. So it’s why it’s really important to diagnose early and help the patients to screen those comorbidities to prevent, treat, or delay the appearance of the disease. It’s the most common endocrinologic disease that we have in women of reproductive age. And it’s not infrequent that we see a sister or a mom having the same disease. There is a genetic factor, for sure, but the genetics is not sufficient, you need also to have lifestyle that will affect the development of what we call PCOS.
