Hirsutism in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome in post-conflict Iraq

Abstract EN

Objective: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy affecting women in the reproductive age.

Hirsutism is commonly associated with PCOS and can be a very disturbing condition.

Published articles on Hirsutism in PCOS in Iraq are scarce; therefore this work was carried out.

Methods: A total of 139 infertile women were included in this study for the period 2nd January to 31th August 2012.

Cases were recruited from infertility clinic in Baghdad Teaching Hospital.

An interview was conducted with every selected women and a questionnaire was filled.

The requested including was demographic data and PCOS, history of menstrual disturbances, infertility, history of DM and measurement of waist circumference, hirsutism, acne, and androgenic alopecia, ultrasound study and levels of LH, FSH, testosterone, prolactin and fasting blood sugar (FBS) were obtained from the patient’s private record.

Results: Out of the studied sample, 83.5% had PCOS and out of them 66.4% were with hirsutism.

No significant differences in age and waist circumference between those with and without hirsutism (p=0.5 and 0.2, respectively).

LH, FSH, LH/FSH ratio, prolactin and FBS were significantly differ with hirsutism (p=0.7, 0.9, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.5, respectively).

Testosterone was significantly elevated in hirsutism (p=0.001).

Conclusions: High prevalence of hirsutism among PCOS was noticed.