Why do you have this disease? The cause of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS for short) is unknown. It is generally believed to be related to genetics, insulin resistance, malfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, adrenal gland dysfunction, and metabolism. What are its symptoms? 1, menstrual abnormalities This is the most common symptom of PCOS patients, commonly have scanty menstruation (more than 35 days after menopause), amenorrhea (more than six months after menopause), a small number of can be manifested as menstrual cycle disorders, menstrual period of different lengths, bleeding from time to time, or even hemorrhage. Mostly occur in adolescence, for the continuation of irregular menstruation after menarche, sometimes accompanied by dysmenorrhea. 2.Masculinized performance Due to the elevation of androgen, PCOS women show different degrees of hirsutism, with an incidence of nearly 20%. Hairiness is mainly characterized by dense pubic and axillary hairs, which can also be distributed on the upper lip, jaw, chest, back, middle of the abdomen, upper thighs and other parts of the body, but the degree of hirsutism is not proportional to the level of androgens. At the same time can be accompanied by acne, rough skin, large pores, excessive secretion of facial sebum, low voice, clitoral hypertrophy, the emergence of laryngeal knot and other signs of masculinization. 3, infertility As a result of long-term non-ovulation, patients are often combined with infertility, even if the pregnancy is prone to miscarriage. 4, obesity Many girls feel that they are very fat, in fact, in the medical obesity or a certain standard, here to teach you a more simple but very commonly used to assess the weight standard parameters – body mass index (BMI), the calculation method is also very simple: weight (kg)/height (cm) 2, WHO normal range The WHO normal range is 18.5～25, more than that is obese. 40%～60% of PCOS patients have obesity. Obesity is mostly concentrated in the abdomen, waist/hip ratio > 0.85. Obesity and the development of PCOS have a mutually reinforcing effect. 5, acanthosis nigricans PCOS patients may appear local skin or large or small velvety, flaky, gray-brown lesions, often distributed in the back of the neck, armpits, vulva, groin and other skin folds, and high androgen and insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. 6.Endocrine changes include increased androgen, increased gonadotropin LH/FSH ratio, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia, mild prolactin elevation. Among them, elevated androgens are the most important endocrine changes in PCOS patients and one of the conditions for the diagnosis of PCOS. In addition, if you want to know more about PCOS, you must be familiar with the term “insulin resistance (IR)”, which refers to the condition in which the normal amount of insulin is not enough to produce a normal insulin response to fat cells, muscle cells and hepatocytes, because 50% to 60% of PCOS patients present IR, and there is a risk of developing glycaemic changes. IR, there is a risk of developing impaired glucose tolerance or even type 2 diabetes. 7, long-term complications outpatient clinic often have patients will ask “this problem in the end dangerous? If it’s just irregular menstruation, inability to get pregnant or poor skin texture, it doesn’t feel very serious.” Well, I have to tell you: it’s not that simple! More serious complications are the following: (1) Tumors: due to sporadic ovulation caused by persistent and relatively high levels of estrogen, long-term stimulation of the endometrium will increase the incidence of endometrial cancer and breast cancer. (2) Cardiovascular diseases: disorders of lipid metabolism can easily cause atherosclerosis, leading to coronary heart disease and hypertension. (3) Diabetes: insulin resistance state and hyperinsulinemia, obesity, easy to develop into hidden diabetes or diabetes. How to diagnose whether I have this disease? 1, sparse ovulation or anovulation: clinical manifestations of amenorrhea, scanty menstruation, the first 2~3 years can not establish regular menstruation as well as basal body temperature showing monophasic. Some people may ask, regular menstruation must be ovulation? The answer is no, sometimes, regular menstruation is not ovulatory menstruation. 2. Clinical manifestations of hyperandrogenism and/or hyperandrogenemia: Clinical manifestations have already been described, including acne, hirsutism, and so on. Hyperandrogenemia, on the other hand, needs to be determined by blood tests. Ovarian polycystic changes: ultrasound examination shows that one or both ovaries have ≥12 follicles with a diameter of 2~9mm and/or an ovarian volume of ≥10cm3. PCOS can be diagnosed if any two of the above three items are met. you must be in the right place now, right? Doesn’t it seem easy to diagnose PCOS? Remember, it is not easy to diagnose and treat a disease. Not only do we need to see if you meet the diagnostic criteria, but we also need to conduct a series of related differential diagnosis, that is, to exclude other diseases that can be easily confused with it, so as to avoid misdiagnosis. Therefore, if in doubt, you must go to a regular hospital as soon as possible and consult with your doctor, never blindly diagnose or even treat yourself, so as not to delay the best time for treatment, and even cause harm to the body. Misconceptions about birth control pills: 1. Short-acting oral contraceptives are one of the most commonly used drugs in the treatment of PCOS because they have unrivaled advantages in reducing androgens and adjusting the menstrual cycle. But too many people currently have an extreme fear and rejection of birth control pills, or hormonal drugs. In my outpatient clinic, the most commonly asked questions are: “Will I gain weight if I take birth control pills?” “Will we get tumors?” “Why are we given things like birth control pills when we are still little girls?!” “Will we not be able to have children after taking it?” “Will the children born later be of bad quality?” …… It’s likely that you have these questions in your mind as well. Then I will answer these questions. 2, a large number of clinical studies have shown that women who use short-acting oral contraceptives do not see a significant increase in weight on average, and many times this is actually due to the obesity trend of PCOS itself. Around the relationship between contraceptives and tumorigenesis, domestic and foreign has also done a lot of research, as long as it is not a high-risk group of estrogen-dependent tumors (for example, a family history of breast cancer, once suffered from breast cancer, etc.), oral contraceptives not only does not increase the probability of developing tumors, but also able to reduce the incidence of a variety of malignant tumors. Contraceptive pills have the effect of regulating menstruation and lowering androgens, not just contraception, so they can be used for unmarried women, and at the same time, they do not increase the risk of pregnancy after stopping the pill, for PCOS patients, after stopping the pill, on the contrary, they can improve the chances of conception. See here, do you also think that the pill has been “wronged”? After introducing so many, you are not on polycystic ovary syndrome have some understanding of it? But still want to remind again, do not arbitrarily “into the seat” self diagnosis or even treatment, because the choice of drugs, the use of dosage, the combination of different drugs and so on need to be in the experienced gynecologist’s guidance can be completed.