Polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, is a hormonal disorder that affects at least 200,000 individuals in the United States annually. PCOS remains relatively understudied, and scientists remain unsure about exactly what its causes and effects are. Individuals with PCOS are believed to have hormonal imbalances that can cause various symptoms such as irregular periods, excess hair growth, and abdominal pain. Individuals with PCOS may also develop painful cysts on their ovaries. There is no cure for the disease as so little is known about PCOS. However, some experts believe as many as 5 million women may actually suffer from it.
For years, researchers have known that women with PCOS have a higher chance of developing Type 2 diabetes. Although the reason for this is unknown, scientists have recently discovered a possible treatment to help reduce this risk.
Researchers in the UK analyzed the patient records of over 180,000 women with the goal of elucidating the relationship between diabetes and PCOS. Out of the patients whose records were analyzed, 35% of them were diagnosed with PCOS. The researchers first identified the risk of prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes in these women, finding that women with PCOS were twice as likely to develop diabetes compared to women without PCOS. Researchers then analyzed a smaller subset of patient records from 4,800 women with PCOS and additionally found that the use of oral contraceptives, such as the popular birth control pill, lowered the risk of developing both prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes by 42%.
Scientists believe that the reason birth control works to reduce Type 2 diabetes is because it regulates hormones in the body. In particular, birth control helps reduce the amount of androgens in the body, which are hormones that have been linked with insulin production. The next step for these researchers is to conduct a clinical trial to further confirm the findings and study how birth control regulates hormones. These findings show promise for further research in expanding the current knowledge as well as treatment of PCOS.
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