Publication:

Prevalence and clinical manifestations of polycystic ovarian syndrome among adolescent and adult women in Davangere, Karnataka

Background The prevalence of a disease in a particular region is always a necessary tool for any control measures. There are no full-fledged published data on PCOS prevalence and clinical manifestation patterns in our study setting geographic location. This study aimed to study the prevalence and clinical manifestation of PCOS among adolescents and adult women.

Methods This is a prospective cross-sectional observational study conducted with total of 426 participants. A structured questionnaire was given to all the participants and collected data was assessed. Questionnaire included the following components; (i) Knowledge assessment, (ii) Anthropometric assessment, (iii) Clinical history, and (iv) Menstrual history included irregularity as well as presence of oligomenorrhea after one year of menarche, wait gain and hirsutism/ androgen production assessment (skin problems, and hair distribution).

Results 27% of adolescent PCOS cases were found to be in the age group of 10-18 years. While, 11% of adult women with PCOS were found to be in the age group of 19-45 years. Majority of the study participants with PCOS were found to be obese (49.1%) followed be overweight (31.7%), and non-obese (19.2%) indicating an association of BMI with PCOS. Majority of the PCOS cases i.e., 37.3% were presented with acne/oily skin followed by alopecia (17.4%), mood swings/depression (16.8%), pigmentation (16.1%), and hirsutism (12.4%).

Conclusions PCOS is increasingly encountered during adolescence with clinical manifestation of acne/oily skin in our study setting. Furthermore, PCOS was associated with overweight and obesity. Therefore, our study is indicative of the fact that all overweight and/or obese adolescence with acnes and/or oily skin should be screened for PCOS for early diagnosis and management.