[News] Identifying Children at Risk for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

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Identifying Children at Risk for  Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Dec  19

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abst
ractPlus&list_uids=17179197&itool=pubmed_DocSum

The  objective was to review the evidence that risk factors for PCOS can be  
recognized in childhood.  Congenital virilizing disorders; above-average or  
low birth-weight for gestational age; premature adrenarche, particularly  
exaggerated adrenarche; atypical sexual precocity; or intractable obesity with  
acanthosis nigricans, metabolic syndrome, and pseudo-Cushing syndrome or  
pseudo-acromegaly in early childhood have been identified as independent  prepubertal 
risk factors for the development of PCOS.  During adolescence,  PCOS may 
masquerade as physiologic adolescent anovulation. Asymptomatic  adolescents with a 
polycystic ovary occasionally (8%) have subclinical PCOS, but  often (42%) 
have a subclinical PCOS-type of ovarian dysfunction, the prognosis  for which is 
unclear. The study concluded that identifying children at risk for  PCOS 
offers the prospect of eventually preventing some of the long-term  complications 
associated with this syndrome once our understanding of the basis  of the 
disorder improves.