Treatments

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a condition that affects a woman’s hormone levels. Women with PCOS produce higher-than-normal amounts of male hormones. This hormone imbalance causes them to skip menstrual periods and makes it harder for them to get pregnant. PCOS also causes hair growth on the face and body, and baldness.

PCOS is underdiagnosed and undertreated. This may be because symptoms can be mild or seem unrelated. But untreated PCOS can lead to a wide range of more serious health conditions, and the symptoms of the disorder can cause significant distress. Unmanaged PCOS is associated with type 2 diabetes, infertility, cardiovascular disease, obesity, sleep apnea (disrupted breathing in sleep), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and depression. Early diagnosis and treatment can help reduce these risks significantly. Healthcare providers can often give a diagnosis after a short assessment or simple tests.

In people without PCOS, ovulation (the release of an egg from the ovary) typically happens about once a month. People with PCOS may ovulate less frequently or predictably, and may be more prone to miscarriages, which is why PCOS is a common cause of infertility.

For people trying to become pregnant, PCOS can make it harder to time sex to the fertile days of their menstrual cycle, when ovulation happens. It can also take longer to become pregnant if ovulation is only occurring every few months. People with PCOS are more likely to seek out and require fertility treatments than people who don’t have it.