Little-Known Cause of Infertility
A peculiar and destructive condition that afflicts as many as 10 percent of women is the most common cause of female infertility.
Women with the disorder, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), usually are overweight, miss or have irregular periods, have a profusion of small cysts (fluid-filled sacs) in their ovaries, have high levels of male hormones (androgens) and suffer from excessive hair growth, especially facial hair.
"[Physicians] didn't really put the pieces together until recently," said Hillary Wright, a registered and licensed dietitian who works with many infertile patients at the Domar Center in Waltham, Mass.
A key characteristic of women with PCOS is high levels of insulin in the blood, otherwise known as insulin resistance. Researchers now believe abnormally high insulin increases the production of androgens by the ovaries, fat cells and adrenal glands, which disrupts ovulation patterns.
"PCOS is a major cause of inovulatory infertility," said Wright, "which is women having trouble getting pregnant because they don't ovulate on a regular basis."
The best way to treat PCOS, she said, is to focus on losing weight through exercise and changing one's diet.
"Gaining weight is probably a bit like throwing lighter fluid on the fire," Wright said. "When a woman exercises, she produces enzymes in her cells that go after the sugar in her blood and gobble it up. Exercise actually does naturally what some of the medications they use for PCOS do chemically."
Such treatment is crucial, she said, because "women with PCOS have a higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, potentially some forms of cancer."