PCOS: Major Causes Behind

Good afternoon everybody!

I am Dr. Anjali Bapat. I am a Gynecologist and I practice at Mahim. Now today I am going to tell you something about PCOS or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Why I'm telling you this is basically because in my practice I come across many young girl from the age group of 20 to 40, who complain of an irregular period. Because of the lot of information on Google as well as in some magazines, on sites, their friends, all of them they conclude that any kind of an irregular period that they are suffering from Polycystic Ovary. Some of them even get extremely scared that ‘’Oh! Mam, I'm I suffering from Polycystic ovary so is it something very very serious’’.

Well what I would put it like this is that Polycystic ovary is over diagnosed and undertreated condition. What I mean is that after doing Sonography many of the patients it is seen that in the ovaries there are multiple cystic polystyrene cysts are present and hence they are labelled as polycystic ovary. Mind you girl that polycystic ovary is not something very difficult to treat or it is not something that is going to cause danger to your life or it is going to cause a problem in the conception once you get married or if you are married then you are thinking of a child. It's a very easily treatable condition. Let me tell you what it is, first of all, some girls have genetic predisposition towards polycystic ovary.

Which I mean is that some of their genes carry certain traits like for example diabetes, diabetes is like a genetically origin. The same way these girls have their autosomes have certain gene which makes them have a polycystic ovary. This particular genetic trait gets exaggerated or get manifested due to various lifestyle issues that this generation is facing. Which are those issues? First and foremost no exercises. We all are very busy we get exemption which means a very tiring body, tiring mind but is not an exercise. Exercise is exactly the opposite of that. There is a physical activity but it releases a lot of hormones like a endorphins, serotonin etc, which in fact releases the stress. So often I see girls who do not either have time or inclination to exercise. Second most important thing is your dietary habits. A large amount of vegetarian people consume mainly carbohydrates, so a high carbohydrate load is another causative factor which causes this kind of a manifestation of polycystic ovary.

The third most important point is the sleep, thanks to Whatsapp, thanks to Facebook and many other internet and other media. Yes, we need to be active on it but to a certain limit. Often we see that at the end of the hectic schedule when goes off to the bed we switch off the light about 12 o'clock or 12:30 and after that on an average about an hour or so we are glued to our screen. This flickering illuminated screen just before going to sleep causes hormonal imbalance. This is the most detrimental thing. The fourth most important point is stress. Stress is basically any situation which we find a bit difficult to deal with. How are we going to eliminate this stress from the surrounding? Unfortunately no. The stresses are going to be plenty what one has to learn is the response to this stress. Hence once all these four factors if you can control naturally the possibility of polycystic ovaries goes down.

As far as the treatment part is concerned, I want to tell you that there is a tried, the first it's a triangle one apex of the triangle is a polycystic ovary, second apex is obesity and the third one is insulin resistance. You understand polycystic ovary, you understand obesity that is increasing the weight. The third one Insulin resistance which is very important. What it is? Insulin resistance is the condition where the cells of our body can not adequately use the carbohydrates that are present in the body. Hence this high load of carbohydrates gets converted into what is slowly gets converted into glycogen and later on into visceral fat. So we typically a lady who is not so fat, who is not so obese, but if we do her body composition her muscle mass is very poor and percentage of a visceral fat is very high. This visceral fat is a big culprit, it causes a lot of hindrance in the metabolic processes.

Hence a control of an obesity, a control of a insulin resistance is absolutely mandatory for the control of polycystic ovary it’s a tried. One is dependent on the other what I means that obesity causes insulin resistance, insulin resistance causes PCOS and vice-versa. So it’s a by double-ended arrows for the triangle. When polycystic ovaries are also having a science of what is called as a Hyperandrogenism, that means the receptors for the androgens on the hair, facial hair, on the scalp hair or on various skin, is very sensitive to the androgens that are present in the body and this causes excessive hair growth of the body parts for the thinning of the scalp hair which is a male pattern of thinning. When such kind of such things are seen symptoms are seen at that time certainly a medication is required from the Endocrinologist out from the Gynaecology. But mine you what I see the PCOS girls that I see a large percentage is the beginners of this PCOS problem.

So with a minimal amount of a medication and most important lifestyle changes one can keep it under control but if you are having a flared up polycystic ovaries don't worry it does not usually cause a problem in the conception and if the problem occurs various assisted reproductive technologies can take care of it. So to conclude, polycystic ovary is the problem of present generation. To control it there means there are methods and you have to use it properly and scientifically. For any of your Gynaecological or Obstetric query, you can definitely contact me. Take my appointment on Lybrate.

I'll be most happy to help you Thank you so much!