Endocrine Abstracts

There is strong evidence that genetic factors play an important part in the aetiology of PCOS1 and we have have proposed that PCOS has its origin in fetal life and that, in human females, exposure to excess androgen, at any stage from fetal development of the ovary to the onset of puberty, leads to many of the characteristic features of PCOS, including abnormalities of LH secretion and insulin resistance 2.In postnatal life the natu...

Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) are at increased risk of developing insulin resistance, obesity and dyslipidemia, however obesity per se does not explain the higher incidence of insulin resistance in PCOS women when compared to the general population. Altered adipose tissue morphology and function may be a central factor contributing to metabolic disturbances in PCOS. Using a clinically realistic ovine model of PCOS we reported hyperinsulinaemia and early ...

The significance of hyperandrogenism (HA) as a metabolic risk factor in women is controversial. HA can be defined as either clinical (hirsutism) or biochemical (elevated androgen levels). We aimed to investigate whether HA at age 31 associates with metabolic syndrome (MetS), type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) or carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) by age 46. In a prospective, general population-based follow-up birth cohort (n=5889 women) blood samples were collected at ...