Polycystic-Ovary Syndrome — What Is It?

THE term "polycystic-ovary syndrome" is best reserved for describing a clinical but not a specific pathophysiologic syndrome, since the cause of the disorder encompasses several different abnormalities with similar clinical presentations.1 , 2 The syndrome is probably the most common endocrinologic disorder among women during their reproductive years.Almost 50 years ago, Stein and Leventhal described a syndrome consisting of obesity, hirsutism, and amenorrhea in women with bilaterally enlarged polycystic ovaries.3 Since then, however, many women have been described who do not have amenorrhea, hirsutism, or obesity, but who have Normal-Sized or enlarged ovaries containing fluid-filled follicular cysts and have other characteristic . . .