ABHIYAAN PCOS, A Consortium for Multidisciplinary Strategy for Management

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a common reproductive-endocrine-metabolic disorder of women with its galloping prevalence is reaching epidemic proportions today in India and abroad. Women suffering from PCOS have a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations like irregular menstrual cycles, infertility, hirsutism, acne and vulnerability for obesity. Besides these women are at a risk for concurrently manifesting obesity and prediabetes or subsequent development of type 2 diabetes mellitus and consequent cardiovascular diseases. Some of the manifestations have caused stigmatization and social isolation of women with PCOS contributing to its adverse psycho-social impact. This multiplicity of diverse manifestations makes it difficult for the patients to choose a specialist. As a consequence, there is often a fragmented attention to PCOS from diverse specialties like dermatology, gynecology, diabetology and psychiatrist. Additionally, the less known and poorly understood etiology of PCOS have also posed a challenge for medical science for committed research, education and organized services. This is more so due to the compartmentalization and divergence into super specialization in modern medical and biomedical sciences. Recognizing PCOS as a condition of great public health issue in India, a group of committed clinical and basic scientists from four major institutes of Mumbai formed, ABHIYAAN PCOS, a consortium for a co-operative endeavor in addressing the multiple aspects that concern women with PCOS. In the present article, we have covered the ground reality of the PCOS in India, the need to develop India-specific guidelines in-view of the pluralistic healthcare and the current efforts in the domain of PCOS by both private and public health-sectors.