The prevalence of polycystic ovaries in women with infertility

Polycystic ovaries (PCO) are highly prevalent in women presenting with hirs utism or recurrent miscarriage but the functional significance of PCO in ov ulatory women presenting with infertility remains unclear. We examined the prevalence of PCO, on ultrasonography, among women presenting with infertil ity. Among 289 couples classified in four main diagnostic categories, PCO w ere found in 81 (83%) of 98 anovulatory patients, 40 (53%) of 76 patients w hose partners had sperm dysfunction, 26 (50%) of 52 patients with tubal dis ease and in 28 (44%) of 63 patients with unexplained infertility, By compar ison, in a control group of 67 parous volunteers, 19 (28%) were found to ha ve PCO, PCO patients with unexplained infertility had higher midfollicular luteinizing hormone and testosterone compared with the group with normal ov aries. The prevalence of PCO was significantly higher in each of the infert ility groups than in controls, and a similar tendency (not significant) was observed among women with unexplained infertility, Ovulatory PCO women wit h infertility had higher testosterone concentrations in comparison with PCO controls. In summary, the prevalence of PCO among ovulatory women with inf ertility is higher than that in the normal population, suggesting that PCO may, perhaps by virtue of an effect of hyperandrogenaemia, contribute to th e causes of subfertility in women with regular menses.