Abstract
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 4–18% of women of reproductive age. The number
of reports exploring the lipid profiles among PCOS patients and number of studied
patients are limited. The aim of our study was to assess the lipid profile separately
in lean and non-lean women with polycystic ovary syndrome divided according to hyperandrogenemia,
defined as free androgen index (FAI)≥5. The second aim was to compare the lipid profiles
among lean and non-lean PCOS patients with respect to hyperandrogenemia and regularity
of menstruation cycles. We evaluated 232 patients from Department of Endocrinological
Gynecology, Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow diagnosed with PCOS. The population consisted of 166 lean and 66 non-lean women. We
observed higher levels of total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol
(HDL-C) in lean patients with FAI<5 than in lean patients with FAI≥5. There were no
differences in lipid profile between non-lean patients with FAI≥5 and non-lean patients
with FAI<5. Among lean patients higher total cholesterol levels were observed in those
with irregular menstruation cycles and FAI<5 than in patients with FAI≥5 and regular
cycles. There were no differences in lipid profiles between four phenotypes among
non-lean PCOS patients.
Conclusions The results of our study showed differences in lipid profile between lean PCOS patients
according to their phenotype based on androgens’ level. This effect was abandoned
by fat tissue mass in non-lean ones. Further studies should be conducted to explore
these associations.
Key words
polycystic ovary syndrome - HDL - cholesterol
