Hirsutism Scoring in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Concordance Between Clinicians' and Patients' Self-Scoring
December 2010
in “
Fertility and Sterility
”
TLDR Patients with PCOS tend to score their hirsutism higher than clinicians, making self-scoring less useful for diagnosis.
In a 2010 study involving 68 women with PCOS, it was found that patients' self-scoring of hirsutism using the mFG method yielded a higher mean score (15.1 with a SEM of 6.8) than clinicians' scoring (12.0 with a SEM of 4.4). The study aimed to compare these scoring methods and their relation to biochemical hyperandrogenism. There was a significant correlation between the two scoring methods, especially in areas most sensitive to androgens. However, only the clinicians' scores correlated significantly with increased levels of the testosterone free index. The study concluded that while there is a relationship between self-scoring and clinician scoring, patients tend to overestimate their hirsutism severity, making self-scoring using the mFG scale less clinically useful for diagnosing hirsutism in women with PCOS.
