Endocrine Abstracts

Fertility problems in women with PCOS are by no means inevitable. Indeed women who have symptoms of PCOS have at least one child just as often as those who do not have PCOS. But there is no doubt that women with PCOS who have oligo- or amenorrhoea are likely to require induction of ovulation and, in these circumstances, the sooner they seek the appropriate treatment for induction of ovulation, the better the chances of a timely pregnancy....

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the commonest cause of anovulatory infertility, menstrual disturbances and hirsutism. PCOS is also associated with a metabolic disturbance characterised by hyperinsulinaemia and insulin resistance. Women with PCOS are at increased long-term risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and carry a significant risk factor profile for cardiovascular disease. Obesity amplifies both reproductive and metabolic dysfunction. A growing body of evidence ...

‘This house believes that androgen replacement therapy, to get things going, should be offered to every hypogonadal woman’.In opposing this motion, I shall review the advantages and disadvantages of androgen replacement therapy and draw attention to the folly of offering treatment to every hypogonadal women....

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the commonest cause of anovulatory infertility, menstrual disturbances and hirsutism. In its classic form the presentation is of amenorrhoea or oligomenorrhoea associated with clinical and/or biochemical evidence of hyperandrogenism. However, it is clear that the spectrum of presenting symptoms of women with polycystic ovaries is wide, including anovulation without hirsutism (androgen levels are usually raised) and hirsutism with regular cyc...

Background/aims: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder in women, being characterized by ovarian hyperandrogenism attributed to intrinsic overproduction by theca cells (TCs). Although previous reports pointed a higher stability and transcription of CYP17mRNA (Wickenheisser JK et al. 2006)1, few have examined (and none has quantified) P450c17 protein expression in TCs from PCOS ovaries. Therefore, the aim of this study is to qua...

Insulin resistance is common in women with PCOS. Insulin and IGF-1 affect glucose uptake and metabolism via insulin receptor substrate (IRS-1) and the phosphotidyl inositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway. Impaired glucose metabolism has been observed in granulosa-lutein cells from anovulatory (but not ovulatory) women with PCO (Rice et al. 2005). The aim of this study was to analyse IRS-1 protein expression in human preantral follicles in samples of normal and PCO. Immunohisto...

Preantral follicle development in polycystic ovaries (PCO) is characterised by an increased proportion of early growing follicles. We have previously shown that IGF-1 stimulates initiation of follicle growth in normal and PCO (Endocrine Abstracts 2004 7 P172). Here we have extended these studies, specifically to examine whether the ovulatory status of the patients from whom tissue is obtained influences the response to IGF-1. Small ovarian biopsies were obtained (with ethical ...

The recent recommendations from the joint ESHRE/ASRM expert panel regarding the definition of PCOS (the so-called Rotterdam Criteria) have given rise to considerable controversy, particularly over the inclusion of anovulatory women with polycystic ovaries (PCO) but without evidence of androgen excess. We reviewed the results of a large series of anovulatory women with PCO who have been treated with low-dose FSH at our centre with the aim of investigating the impact of serum te...

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the commonest endocrine disorder in women and polycystic ovaries are characterized by excess ovarian stroma that has implications for disordered follicle development in PCOS. The factors contributing to proliferation and increased density of stroma remain unclear but local overproduction of androgens may be involved.Aim: To examine differential expression of genes that regulate key proteins that comprise ...

Case history: A 58 year old woman presented to her GP when her family members noted prominence of her left eye. She had a background history of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Her main symptom of PCOS was hirsutism. She had been treated initially with the combined oral contraceptive pill ‘Dianette’ (ethinyloestradiol/cyproterone) but had also been treated intermittently with varying doses of 25–100 mg cyproterone acetate (CPA) 10 days/cycle. Post menopause she...