What is Polycystic Ovary Syndrome?
Polycystic ovary syndrome is a multi-symptom disease process and I think for many years was very misunderstood or under-diagnosed. The most common symptom of polycystic ovaries is irregular periods. Patients will skip periods for weeks or months at a time. They will go into 45 days, beyond 45 days, 3 months, 6 months at a time that they'll skip periods. Then when they have them they can be fairly heavy. It's also a disease process where we think insulin resistance plays a role. We see some abnormal hair growth. We see some skin changes associated with it; we see acne.

So there's a variety of different symptoms that can present that may help in recognizing that there might be a problem. Certainly if you're not ovulating and triggering a period, then it also can be difficult to attain a pregnancy because you have less opportunities in a year's time to get pregnant. It is estimated right now upwards of 15% of women in the United States probably have some variety of polycystic ovaries. It's a large number, and I think that's consistent with what I see in my practice.

For the most part polycystic ovaries is not dangerous to people; it's a problem that needs to be managed. If someone has irregular periods and have some of these other symptoms, they should see their gynecologist and have a discussion about trying to determine what is the cause of their irregular periods The old adage of, “Oh I didn't get my period, I must have been stressed,” is really not an accurate assessment of the situation. If someone is regularly skipping periods, they should be seen by a physician and evaluated.

If left untreated over years and years it is a problem that that can give people more issues down the road. These could include premature coronary disease, a pre-symptom of diabetes, and risk of endometrial cancer. Because of this discussion and understanding of the disease process between the patient and the physician is very important.

The treatment really is management of the ill effects of the disease process. For example if one of the problems is insulin resistance, then certainly changing diet and exercise and weight-loss can decrease the chance that someone might develop diabetes down the road. The regulation of cycles through a variety of medications can prevent the risk of endometrial cancer overtime. The easiest and best way to probably try to reverse some of the effects of polycystic ovaries is through diet and weight loss.

Dr. Heather Taggart: https://www.chihealth.com/en/find-a-p...