Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: A Primer.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 8-10 percent of reproductive-aged females, making it the most common state of endocrine dysfunction in women. Patients with PCOS are often treated for the signs and symptoms of the condition without consideration for the underlying syndrome, causing frustration for many affected patients. Abnormal uterine bleeding, endometrial hyperplasia and cancer, hirsutism and other skin changes, obesity, glucose intolerance, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia often accompany the syndrome, making it imperative to address these issues. The keys to diagnosis and treatment are understanding the diagnostic criteria of hyperandrogenism, ovulatory dysfunction, polycystic ovaries and the metabolic syndrome, while aiming treatment at controlling the symptoms and causes of the syndrome. In 2013, the Endocrine Society released its clinical guidelines, Diagnosis and Treatment of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline. This gives clear diagnostic criteria, and treatment goals aimed at the etiology of the syndrome: to decrease hyperandrogenic symptoms, management of underlying metabolic abnormalities, prevention of endometrial hyperplasia and carcinoma, and improvement of ovulation.