Pregnancy-related complications in women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

Increasing scientific evidence (Boomsma et al., Hum Reprod Update 2006; Kjerulff et al., Am J Obstet Gynecol 2011) demonstrates that women with PCOS that get pregnant have an increased risk of gestational diabetes (diabetes in pregnancy), pre-eclampsia (hypertensive disease in pregnancy), preterm birth and perinatal mortality.

A very recent large population based cohort study compared births among women with PCOS and births among women without the syndrome (Roos et al., BMJ 2011). The authors found that women with PCOS were more often obese and more commonly used assisted conception treatment as compared with women without PCOS. More importantly, the authors clearly showed the association between PCOS and a significantly increased risk of pregnancy being complicated by pre-eclampsia, very preterm birth, gestational diabetes, and neonates large for gestational age.

Collectively these data suggest that pregnant women with PCOS should be considered at increased risk of maternal and perinatal complications and as such should be monitored closely and should receive consultant care throughout pregnancy.

Further research is however needed to better understand the underlying physiopathological mechanisms and whether the increased risks are linked with specific PCOS phenotypes.