A Simple Screening Approach for Assessing Community Prevalence and Phenotype of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in a Semiurban Population in Sri Lanka
June 2008
in “
American Journal of Epidemiology
”
TLDR A simple screening method found that 6.3% of women in a semiurban area in Sri Lanka have polycystic ovary syndrome, with most showing menstrual irregularities.
In 2008, a study involving 2,915 women aged 15-39 from a semiurban population in Sri Lanka found a 6.3% prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) using a simple screening approach. The screening identified 220 probable cases of PCOS, with 164 being newly diagnosed based on the Rotterdam diagnostic criteria. The most common PCOS phenotypes were oligo/amenorrhea and polycystic ovaries (91.4%) and oligo/amenorrhea and hirsutism (48.3%). Women with PCOS had higher body mass index, waist:hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, and total testosterone levels, and lower sex hormone-binding globulin compared to controls. The study concluded that the simple screening tool was effective for early detection of PCOS and that the reproductive phenotype, characterized by menstrual irregularities, was more common in this population than the androgenic phenotype.