Weight loss helps in PCOS

Losing weight appears to improve egg release in obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is a disease which involves enlargement of the ovaries and is often associated with obesity, menstrual problems, and infertility. Losing weight might help increase the chances of becoming pregnant in women who suffer from this disease. Researchers from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York found that management of PCOS will be increasingly complicated by the epidemic of obesity.

Researchers assessed the outcomes of 38 obese PCOS patients who completed a 24-week program of diet and exercise with or without the use of metformin, a diabetes drug. Some of the women did not receive any special therapy and served as a comparison group. Patients in both diet and exercise groups experienced significant reductions in body weight, whereas patients in the comparison group did not. Out of the two diet and exercise interventions, the one that also used metformin therapy was the best at reaching the patients' weight loss goals.Women who lost weight were nine times more likely to experience regular ovulation than women who did not lose weight, regardless of whether they used metformin. Moreover, among those who took metformin, women who lost weight were 16-times more likely to ovulate regularly than women who didn't lose weight.

Researchers recommended that physicians should consider the preliminary evidence that modest weight reduction may be as effective as metformin for ovulation restoration. These data, however, are preliminary in nature and require validation from other trials.

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