Changes in clinical and biochemical characteristics of polycystic ovary syndrome with advancing age

• Main Authors: Sebastião Freitas de Medeiros, Márcia Marly Winck Yamamoto, Matheus Antônio Souto de Medeiros, Bruna Barcelo Barbosa, José Maria Soares Junior, Edmund Chada Baracat
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bioscientifica 2020-02-01
• Series: Endocrine Connections
• Subjects: polycystic ovary syndrome; age groups; body weight changes; endocrine trends; biological aging
• Online Access: https://ec.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/ec/9/2/EC-19-0496.xml

Objective: To verify whether aging can modify the clinical and biochemical characteristics of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Material and methods: This observational cross-sectional study was conducted at the reproductive endocrinology clinics of Julio Muller University Hospital and Tropical Institute of Reproductive Medicine in Cuiabá, MT, Brazil, between 2003 and 2017. Both, 796 PCOS and 444 non-PCOS normal cycling women underwent the same examination. PCOS was diagnosed using the Rotterdam criteria as recommended for adolescent and adult subjects. Anthropometric, metabolic, and endocrinological modifications with aging were initially examined in the two groups: control and PCOS. Further analyses were performed after a 5-year age stratification of data throughout t he reproductive period. All participants signed a consent form approved by the local ethical committee. Results: Biomarkers of adiposity were more remarkable in African descendant PCOS women. Body weight, waist/hip ratio, fat mass, and BMI were higher in PCOS women and tended to increase at all 5 age-strata, between ≤19 and 35 years of age. Serum androgen levels decreased with aging, markedly in PCOS subjects (P < 0.01 for all age-strata comparisons), but remained elevated when compared with the levels found in controls. Carbohydrate markers, triglycerides, and total cholesterol tended to increase over time in PCOS (P < 0.01 for all age-strata comparisons). Total cholesterol also tended to increase with age in non-PCOS women (P = 0.041). Conclusion: The present study has shown that the advancing age influences m any features of PCOS women. Biochemical hyperandrogenism, the core criterion recommended in the current systems to define the syndrome, showed statistically sig nificant tendencies to decrease with aging progression but did not normalize. The use of age-adjusted features for the diagnosis of PCOS are recommended.