PCOS May Delay Menopause/Lengthen Fertile Years July 25, 2010

Thanks to @lilabris sharing this little snippet on Twitter, I got my hands on the relevant issue of New Scientist (Vol. 206, No. 2764 JUN 12, 2010) so that I could share with all of you.

A study from Shahid Behesht University in Iran has found that women with PCOS are just as likely to have children as non-PCOS sufferers, and that they have a better chance of conceiving later in life.  It seems that while we produce high numbers of follicles in our youth, which causes reduced fertility, unlike non-PCOS sufferers, we benefit from the natural decline in follicles as we get older, falling into a normal range of follicles on the ovaries at a time when other women are peri-menopausal.

They have also discovered that statistically, women with PCOS have as many babies as women who do not suffer PCOS.

The team at Shahid Behesht University also wondered if women with PCOS might reach  menopause later as well.  Their study found that the hormone AMH, a marker of ovarian ageing, declined to menopausal levels two years later in the PCOS participants of their study, than the non-PCOS participants.  This also supports the theory that women with PCOS have a better chance at conceiving later in life than their non-PCOS suffering peers.

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