Prevalence of Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) in Obese Females in a Tertiary Care Centre in South India‑An Observational Study

Background: Poly cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is more common among obese females. It has many dimensions which is still being explode many studies have tried to characterise the exact presentation of the disease. This study analysed the prevalence of PCOS in obese females. Along with this, the prevalence of acanthosisnigricans which is a surrogate maker of insulin resistance and Hirsuitism has been simultaneously studied.

Methodology: It was a cross sectional study which is carried out among medical students in a tertiary care centre in South India for one year. Questionnaire was designed and study was done. It comprised sample size of 113 females. All these candidates had high Body mass index (BMI) and all of them fall under obese category. The candidates who were participating in this study were aware of the PCOS condition and a brief session on PCOS was given before the start of this study. Along with this, Cutaneous manifestations were also assessed based on the severity of the symptoms.

Results: This study found that the prevalence rate of PCOS among obese females was 85.8%. More than half of the study patients has acanthosisnigricans (57.5%) and Hirsuitism (59.2%). These results were based on Rotterdamn criteria. In this 93.8% of hyperandrogenism, 57.5% had Acanthosisnegucans and 59.2% had hirsiutism. In this study 50.4% had fulfilled all three criteria according to Rotterdam criteria according to Rotterdam and 35.3% has fulfilled 2 out of 3 criteria and 14.1% faced to fulfillatleast 2 criteria(Figure 3). Thus from the above study we conclude that there is great prevalence rate for PCOS in obese females aged 18 to 22.

Conclusion: With 85.8% prevalence rate of PCOS among obese females, it strongly proves that there is a association between the two. Thus increase in BMI causes increased risk of PCOS among females.