Women with PCOS Experience Later Menopause, Finnish Study of 1,849 Finds

Only 3 per cent of women with polycystic ovary syndrome had reached late perimenopause or menopause by age 46, compared with 18 per cent of women without the condition, a long-term Finnish study has shown. The research tracked 1849 women born in Finland in 1966 who received regular health checks as part of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort study.

When the women were 31 years old, 380 of them met the criteria for PCOS.

Those criteria required at least two of three features: irregular or no periods, high levels of testosterone, and elevated anti-Müllerian hormone. 70198. Terhi Piltonen works at Oulu University Hospital in Finland.

She said women with PCOS are born with a larger reserve of eggs, which prolongs their fertile period. In young adulthood, extra eggs in PCOS ovaries cause crowding that makes the ovary “too tight,” Piltonen stated. Underdeveloped eggs in PCOS appear as dark spots on ultrasounds and were previously misidentified as cysts.

The name “polycystic ovary syndrome” will soon be formally changed. As egg numbers naturally dwindle with age, the ovaries of women with PCOS become less crowded and it is easier for their eggs to mature properly and be released. “This is why women with PCOS often find that their menstrual cycle becomes more regular as they get older,” Piltonen said.

It also explains why some who previously had difficulties conceiving suddenly find themselves highly fertile. A smaller study in Sweden found women with PCOS reached menopause four years later on average than those without the condition. One study found that women who reached menopause after the age of 55 lived two years longer on average than those who reached it before the age of 40.

Piltonen believes the delayed menopause caused by PCOS is likely to be beneficial because the drop in oestrogen that occurs at menopause is associated with weaker bones, thinner skin, higher risks of heart disease and other complications. “Over the years, we’ve had so many women with PCOS telling us how they thought they would never be able to get pregnant without ART [assisted reproductive technology] and then they were so surprised because it happened in their 40s,” she said.

” She believes PCOS may even have had evolutionary advantages in ancestors when food resources were limited and childbirth was riskier, noting that being able to store extra energy by carrying more weight, having longer gaps between childbirth to recover and continuing to reproduce at older ages may have given women with PCOS an edge.

“PCOS is so common that I think it must have had some benefits,” Piltonen said. @NewScientist reported the findings.