Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder characterized by chronic anovulation and hyperandrogenism. PCOS is one of the leading causes of infertility and manifests with hirsutism, acne, and obesity. To investigate its impact on health-related quality of life and sexuality, 50 women with PCOS and 50 controls were evaluated with standardized questionnaires (36-item short-form health survey, symptom checklist revised, and life satisfaction questionnaire). The impact of hirsutism, obesity, and infertility was assessed using five-point rating scales, and sexual satisfaction was analyzed with visual analog scales. Patients showed greater psychological disturbances on the symptom checklist revised dimensions, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, aggression, and psychoticism, along with a lower degree of life satisfaction in the life satisfaction questionnaire scales health, self, and sex. Health-related quality of life measured with the 36-item short-form health survey revealed significantly decreased scores for physical role function, bodily pain, vitality, social function, emotional role function, and mental health in patients with PCOS. Although patients had the same partner status and frequency of sexual intercourse, they were significantly less satisfied with their sex life and found themselves less attractive. Most of the differences were not affected by correction for body weight. In conclusion, PCOS causes a major reduction in the quality of life and severely limits sexual satisfaction.

Objective: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has been shown to cause a reduction in quality of life. This study examines the extent of different PCOS symptoms on quality-of-life, psychosocial wellbeing and sexual satisfaction. Methods: Complete metabolic, hormonal, clinical and psychosocial data were obtained from a total of 120 women with PCOS. Patients were compared with 50 healthy women to establish reductions in quality-of-life and emotional well-being. In addition, the correlation between psychosocial variables and the major clinical PCOS features obesity (body mass index (BMI)), excessive body hair (hirsutism score), acne, hyperandrogenism (serum testosterone levels), disturbed insulin regulation (area under the insulin response curve and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance), menstrual cycle disturbances and infertility were analyzed. Results: PCOS patients showed significant reductions in quality-of-life, increased psychological disturbances, and decreased sexual satisfaction when compared with healthy controls. BMI and hirsutism scores, but not the presence of acne, were associated with physical aspects of quality-of-life and sexual satisfaction. No clear effect of androgens or insulin resistance on psychosocial variables was detected. Similarly, the type of menstrual cycle disturbances or infertility had no impact on psychological well-being. Conclusion: In PCOS, changes in appearance, particularly obesity and hirsutism, reduce physical dimensions of quality-of-life and decrease sexual satisfaction. The role of biochemical, endocrine and metabolic parameters as well as menstrual irregularities and infertility appeared to be less important. Clinicians should pay attention to the psychosocial dimensions of PCOS on an individual basis, regardless of symptom severity or treatment response. 153 853-860 European Journal of Endocrinology

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Design: Over a period of 30 months, 175 patients with PCOS were recruited to a prospective multicenter study to evaluate thyroid function and morphology; 168 age-matched women without PCOS were studied as a control group. Methods: PCOS was defined as a-or oligomenorrhea, hyperandrogenism and exclusion of other disturbances of estrogen or androgen synthesis. All laboratory parameters were determined with automated immunoassays. Thyroid morphology was assessed by ultrasound. Results: PCOS patients were characterized by an increased LH/FSH ratio, low progesterone, elevated testosterone and a high prevalence of hirsutism (PCOS 83%, control 3%; mean hirsutism score 12^5 and 3^2 respectively), but no differences in estrogen levels were found. Thyroid function and thyroidspecific antibody tests revealed elevated thyroperoxidase (TPO) or thyroglobulin (TG) antibodies in 14 of 168 controls (8.3%), and in 47 of 175 patients with PCOS (26.9%; P , 0.001). On thyroid ultrasound, 42.3% of PCOS patients, but only 6.5% of the controls (P , 0.001) had a hypoechoic tissue typical of AIT; while thyroid hormone levels were normal in all subjects, PCOS patients had a higher mean TSH level (P , 0.001) and a higher incidence of TSH levels above the upper limit of normal (PCOS 10.9%, controls 1.8%; P , 0.001). Conclusion: This prospective study demonstrates a threefold higher prevalence of AIT in patients with PCOS, correlated in part with an increased estrogen-to-progesterone ratio and characterized by early manifestation of the disease.

PCOS women may be at an increased risk for clinically relevant anxiety, and comorbid anxiety and depression is also very common. Anxiety contributes to impaired quality of life in PCOS. Given the high prevalence and the serious implications, and the availability of effective treatment options given proper diagnosis, clinicians should be more aware of anxiety disorders in women with PCOS.

Psychiatric illness may go undetected in a proportion of PCOS patients. Although the majority of patients exhibit subclinical levels of psychological disturbances, emotional distress together with obesity lead to large decrements in quality of life in PCOS.

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PCOS represents a major risk factor for psychosocial and emotional problems, but at least in this sample of PCOS patients, infertility does not appear to constitute a primary determinant of psychological problems.

BackgroundThe polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a common endocrine disorder in women of child-bearing age, mainly characterised by chronic anovulation and hyperandrogenism, is often associated with insulin resistance (IR) and obesity. Its etiology and the role of IR and obesity in PCOS are not fully understood. We examined the influence of validated genetic variants conferring susceptibility to obesity and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) on metabolic and PCOS-specific traits in patients with PCOS.MethodsWe conducted an association study in 386 patients with PCOS (defined by the Rotterdam-criteria) using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in or in proximity to the fat mass and obesity associated gene (FTO), insulin-induced gene-2 (INSIG2), transcription factor 7-like 2 gene (TCF7L2) and melanocortin 4 receptor gene (MC4R). To compare the effect of FTO obesity risk alleles on BMI in patients with PCOS to unselected females of the same age range we genotyped 1,971 females from the population-based KORA-S4 study (Kooperative Gesundheitsforschung im Raum Augsburg, Survey 4).ResultsThe FTO risk allele was associated with IR traits and measures of increased body weight. In addition, the TCF7L2 SNP was associated with body weight traits. For the SNPs in the vicinity of INSIG2 and MC4R and for the other examined phenotypes there was no evidence for an association. In PCOS the observed per risk allele effect of FTO intron 1 SNP rs9939609 on BMI was +1.56 kg/m2, whereas it was +0.46 kg/m2 in females of the same age range from the general population as shown previously.ConclusionThe stronger effect on body weight of the FTO SNP in PCOS might well have implications for the etiology of the disease.