Endocrine Abstracts

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine-metabolic condition with a strong familial component suggesting a genetic susceptibility. During pregnancy, PCOS mothers offer an altered intrauterine environment which may also be implicated in the origin of this syndrome, and could determine endocrine/metabolic disturbances in their offspring (boys and girls) that may persist later in life. We have evaluated this possibility studying sons and daughters of PCOS mothers fr...

PCOS (defined by NIH, Rotterdam or AES criteria) is traditionally viewed as an ovarian disorder that appears in adolescence and may lead to metabolic complications in adulthood. Emerging evidence, however, indicates that PCOS is primarily a disorder of adipose-tissue hyperexpansion that may originate in early life, develop across childhood and puberty, and advance into end-stage disease (including ovulatory dysfunction and ovarian androgen excess) by adolescence. Prepubertal m...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is marked by (primarily ovarian) hyperandrogenemia and ovarian dysfunction. In many cases, PCOS first manifests during adolescence, and both peripubertal hyperandrogenemia and obesity are considered risk factors for the development of PCOS. Many, but not all, pubertal girls with obesity – including those in early puberty – exhibit relative hyperandrogenemia. However, the causes of peripubertal obesity-associated hyperandrogenemia, and...