Polycystic Ovaries Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Polycystic Ovaries, including details on treatment, symptoms, polycystic ovary syndrome, infertility.

Prenatal growth restraint followed by catch-up of weight: a hyperinsulinemic pathway to polycystic ovary syndrome.

de Zegher F, Ibáñez L

Department of Woman and Child, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

One of the pathways to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) starts with an early-life sequence of prenatal growth restraint followed by catch-up of weight during infancy. This sequence results by mid-childhood in a pre-PCOS state including hyperinsulinemia, a low-grade proinflammatory state, an amplified adrenarche (with or without precocious pubarche), and an adipose body composition even in the absence of obesity. This variant of pre-PCOS and PCOS responds well to intervention with metformin.

Published 26 June 2006 in Fertil Steril, 86: S4-5.
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