Polycystic ovary syndrome and mental health: a call to action

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy in adult women (1). It can't be cured, but thanks to many years of fruitful research and intensive investigation, multiple modalities to help manage the condition throughout a woman's lifetime have emerged. Those of us who have been in practice for more than a decade or two have likely had the experience of managing mothers and daughters with the condition. Many of us have supported our PCOS patients through an adolescence complicated by acne and hair growth, an early adulthood complicated by infertility and irregular menses, and late reproductive age complicated by the new emergence of regular menstrual cyclicity, the latter a source of complete puzzlement (not to mention inconvenience) for our patient! Most of us have learned by now to carefully screen our patients with PCOS and initiate preventive therapy to avoid long-term and life-threatening complications of the disorder such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and endometrial cancer.
Source: Fertility and Sterility - Category: Reproduction Medicine Authors: Tags: Reflections Source Type: research