- Likewise, it increases the risk of using medications on a regular basis.
- The WHO warns that Parkinson's cases in the world have doubled in 25 years
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| Polycystic ovary syndrome. |
In women, by far the most common endocrine disorder is polycystic ovary syndrome. It is a problem that, although in some cases it may be associated with certain discomforts and in rare instances suppose a reproductive problem, it is not serious.
However, it seems that this condition increases the risk of suffering from another series of diseases, a priori not necessarily related. This has been revealed by a study carried out on 246 women with polycystic ovary syndrome and 1,573 controls published in the specialized media Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica.
Asthma, tendonitis, migraines...
Specifically, the work takes data from the 1966 Northern Finland Birth Cohort and extracts those women who by age 46 had received a diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome. It then looks at reports of symptoms, diagnoses of other illnesses, and the use of medications and health care.
In this way, the authors observed that women with this syndrome were 53% more likely to have another disease and 27% more likely to use some medication.
More specifically, there were certain diseases that had higher incidence rates in the group of women with PCOS. These include some such as migraines, hypertension, tendonitis, osteoarthritis, fractures, and endometriosis; and, to a lesser degree, an association with autoimmune disorders and recurrent upper respiratory tract infections was also found.
Interestingly, they point out, and after adjusting for some potentially confounding variables such as Body Mass Index (BMI), women with PCOS do not seem more likely to seek medical care than the general population.
This evidence adds to some previous studies that had already concluded that women with polycystic ovary syndrome had an increased risk of developing metabolic disorders, such as obesity, glucose tolerance problems, type II diabetes, cardiovascular events, psychological problems, and asthma.
References
Kujanpää L., Arffmann, R. et al. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome are burdened with multimorbidity and medication use independent of body mass index at late fertile age: A population-based cohort study. Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica. Vol. 101, no. 7 (2022).