More care for pregnant women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Under the long names 'Stein-Leventhal syndrome' or 'polycystic ovary syndrome' (SOP) hides the problem to get pregnant for about 15% of the female population of reproductive age. This is mainly due to a hormonal imbalance characterized by irregularities and changes in menstrual cycles, excessive hair, tendency to obesity and the appearance of small cysts on the edges of the ovaries.

Well, in severe cases, women who have PCOS have , And in most cases have no choice but to resort to fertility treatment. However, there are still many unanswered questions: What is the exact origin of this disorder? Are there problems for the mother or fetus during the gestation period?

Indeed, in response to the latter issue, the magazine 'British Medical Journal published in its latest issue, a study by Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute and University Hospital of the same name, who have collected national data of those born between 1995 and 2007, separated whose mothers suffered from this syndrome and those without.

The results are quite surprising. According to the authors, those females suffering from Stein-Leventhal syndrome are more likely to have problems during pregnancy , whether they have undergone fertility treatments.

High-risk patients?

After investigating nearly 4,000 women with this syndrome more than a million who did not, the author lists the most common complications in the first group: "We found that these women are more likely to have diabetes caused by pregnancy, preeclampsia -induced hypertension during pregnancy, or premature delivery. " But they are not alone. According to this study, the fetus also has consequences: "Babies born to these mothers are more likely to be larger for gestational age, leading to an increased incidence of caesarean sections," and there is a higher incidence of asphyxia childbirth ".

In light of these data, the experts are torn between whether to treat these women as high-risk pregnant or not. Javier Martinez, chief of Obstetrics and Osbtetricia Severo Ochoa Hospital in Madrid, there are insufficient data to consider these mothers in this category: "Keep in mind that a significant percentage of women with PCOS in this study were patients serious, but in most cases the only difficulties that go with respect to a pregnant woman without this syndrome is only when you want to stay pregnant, "she says. "Once in pregnancy there is usually no problem and less to the fetus, "says the specialist.

However, Laura Prieto Sanchez, a gynecologist at the University Hospital Madrid's La Paz explains that more comprehensive monitoring of these patients avoid possible problems. "In fact these results are a series of complications chained by the SOP . A woman with this disorder and is resistant to insulin usually have a tendency to gain weight and the more obese, the greater the risk to suffer, for example, diabetes or preeclampsia "argues the gynecologist.

"Indeed, a small percentage of women with this syndrome and fewer still get to have serious problems once they become pregnant because, indeed, the main conflicts are at the time of becoming pregnant," says the specialist. "But that does not mean that these women are more prone to a number of complications during pregnancy and they can get to situations like those observed in this study, "says Dr. Prieto.

So how about it? For authors to Dr. Prieto, the solution is to better control these pregnant women . "Often these investigations are more a warning to physicians to patients. Just to make more revisions could avoid possible complications, whereas what is usually done is act after something happened," said Laura Prieto.