Polycystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD): Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment

What is Polycystic Ovarian Disease?

Polycystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD), which is also known as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a widespread condition affecting 5% to 10% of women in the age group 12–44 years. It is a situation in which a woman’s hormones are imbalanced. It can cause issues with menstrual periods and make it difficult for her to conceive. The principal features include irregular periods, no ovulation, hirsutism and acne. If not treated properly, it can cause insulin-resistant diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity, leading to heart disease.

What causes Polycystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD)?

Typically, the ovaries make female sex hormones, and a tiny amount of male sex hormones called androgens. This help regulates the normal development of eggs in the ovaries of women during each menstrual cycle.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is related to an imbalance in these sex hormones, which also regulates your moods. In PCOS, they start making slightly more androgens than usual. This causes patients to stop ovulating, get pimples or acne and grow extra facial and body hair.

Follicles are a kind of sacs within the ovaries that contain eggs. Naturally, one or more eggs are released during each menstrual cycle which is known as ovulation.

In polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the eggs in these follicles do not mature. They are not released from the ovaries as they form tiny cysts in the ovary, hence the name polycystic ovaries.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) seems to run in families and many generations, so the chance of having it is higher if other women in the family have PCOS, diabetes and even irregular periods.

Common symptoms of PCOD/PCOS include:

• Acne
• trouble losing weight and weight gain
• Extra hair on the face or body. Often women get darker, darker facial hair and more hair on the chest, back and belly
• Thinning hair on the scalp and hair loss
• Irregular periods. Often women with PCOS have fewer than nine or ten periods a year. Some women have no periods and others may have very heavy bleeding
• Also, many women have who have Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have trouble getting pregnant (infertility) or fertility problems.
• Depression and anxiety

Investigations like thyroid hormone tests, blood sugar estimation, ultrasound of the abdomen and pelvis are done. Sometimes serum androgens, luteinising hormone and other hormone estimations may be done.

How Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects your body and mind?

Having higher-than-normal androgen level of hormones can affect your fertility and other aspects of your health and body.

• Infertility

To get pregnant, women have to ovulate. Women who don’t ovulate at regular intervals of time don’t release as many eggs to be fertilized. PCOS is one of the leading causes of infertility in women which causes a lot of problems for them.

• Metabolic syndrome

Up to 80 per cent of women with this syndrome are overweight or obese. Both obesity and PCOS increase your risk for high blood sugar, high blood pressure, low HDL, which is good cholesterol, and high LDL, also known as bad cholesterol.

Together, these factors are known as metabolic syndrome, and they increase the risk of heart disease, failure, diabetes, and stroke, which can be fatal.

• Sleep apnea

This condition causes repeated pauses in breathing during the night and affects your sleep cycles, which interrupt sleep. Sleep apnea is more common in women who are obese, especially if they also have Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The risk for sleep apnea is 5 to 10 times higher in overweight women with PCOS than in those without this syndrome.

• Endometrial cancer

During ovulation, the uterine lining sheds for women. If you don’t ovulate every month, or at regular intervals, the lining can build up. A thickened uterine lining can increase your chances for endometrial cancer.

• Depression

Both hormonal changes and symptoms like unwanted hair growth can negatively affect your thoughts and emotions. Many with this syndrome end up experiencing anxiety and depression.

Treatment

The medical treatment of Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) focuses on managing your concerns, such as hirsutism, infertility, acne and obesity.

• Lowering of blood glucose levels
• Restoration of fertility
• Treatment of hirsutism or acne

Losing weight which can be difficult for many people has been shown to help with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Even a weight loss of 5% to 10% of total body weight has been shown to help with the imbalance of infertility and hormones.

Medications used to treat the menstrual cycles of polycystic ovary syndrome and abnormal hormones include:

• Progesterone pills or birth control pills help to make menstrual cycles more regular and frequent.
• Metformin, a medication that increases the body’s sensitivity to insulin, usually taken by a diabetic person, can improve the symptoms of PCOS/PCOD and sometimes will cause the menstrual cycles to settle. For some women, it can also help in getting rid of some weight.
• Treatment with clomiphene citrate a composition that causes the egg to mature and be released in women. Sometimes women need these drugs or other fertility pills to get pregnant.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) Complications

• It has been found that there is an increased risk of endometrial cancer in women.
• Infertility, there have been instances where early treatment of polycystic ovary disease (PCOS) can help prevent infertility or increase the chance of having a normal pregnancy.
• Obesity-related issues (BMI over 30 and a waist circumference greater than 35 to 40) conditions, such as high heart problems, blood pressure, and diabetes
• Possible increased risk of breast cancer in women.

Some lifestyle tips to treat PCOS

Treatment for PCOS usually begins with lifestyle changes like diet, exercise and weight loss.

Losing just 5 to 15 per cent of your body weight can help regulate your menstrual cycle and improve your mood and PCOS cycles. Weight loss can also improve cholesterol levels, reduced heart failure and diabetes risk. Any diet that helps you in weight loss can help your condition.

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