Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. The disorder of young and adolescent women.

It is considered one of the most frequent hormonal disorders in young and adolescent women and emerges in 5 to 10% of the female population.

1 in 5 suffer from this disorder in the United Kingdom alone and the majority of these cases are of girls between the ages of 14 and 20.

It is believed that this disorder of an unknown origin could have a genetic background.

Its main symptoms are:

• Increase of male hormones or androgens.
• Absence of menstruation or irregular menstruations.
• Anovulation or lack of production of eggs.
• Hirsutism or increase of hair in the face, back and buttocks.
• Obesity.
• Alopecia or hair loss.
• Increase in the size of ovaries and a presence of abundant cysts within them.
• Infertility.
• General disorders, such as Insulin resistance, whose main consequences are diabetes and Hypercholesterolemia.

The diagnostic would be completed through a blood test and a ultrasound of the ovaries and would be confirmed if the patient presents two of the following three main symptoms and signs such as irregular menstruations, ovaries with multiple cysts and an increment in male hormones. It has to be taken into account that if a patient only presents ovarian cysts it is not a diagnostic of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome due to the frequency of these in girls and adolescents.

The treatment would consist of:

• Decreasing the level of androgen hormones or male hormones through inhibitors.
• Pharmaceuticals that favour ovulation in women that want to become pregnant, producing normal menstruations in the ones that do not have them.
• A decrease in the level of insulin in the blood with diet and exercise, including the use of oral antidiabetics in specific cases.
• And lastly, the use of laparoscopic surgery in the ovary especially in women that want to become pregnant, which consists in destroying, through a laser, the part of the ovary that produces the secretion of male hormones, which is what prevents the production of eggs and the consequent pregnancy. 

It is important to make a differential diagnostic between diseases of the adrenal glands and of the thyroid, which sometimes present similar symptoms.

It is fundamental to complete an early diagnostic of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome especially when it comes to preventing an increase of cardiovascular disorders thereby improving the future of many affected adolescent and young girls.

Dr. J. Hurtado Martínez

Medical Director of HealthSalus