Eating, sleeping and sexual dysfunction in polycystic ovary syndrome

Takeaway

• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) may be associated with an increased risk for eating and sleeping disorders and decreased sexual satisfaction.

Why this matters

• Screening of women with PCOS who may be at increased risk of developing mood, sexual health, sleep and eating disorders may help to improve long-term outcomes of patients with early detection of this psychiatric comorbidity.

Study design

• 36 studies (n=349,529) met eligibility criteria after a search across MEDLINE, Embase and other databases.
• Funding: None disclosed.

Key results

• Women with PCOS vs those without were at an increased risk for:
  • bulimia nervosa (OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.17-1.60),
  • binge eating (OR, 2.95; 95% CI, 1.61-5.42) and
  • any eating disorder (OR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.18-3.24).
• No association was observed between PCOS and non-PCOS group in:
  • anorexia nervosa risk (OR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.78-1.10) and
  • total Female Sexual Function Index (mean difference [MD], −0.06; 95% CI, −0.51 to 0.38).
• Women with PCOS vs those without had a higher risk for sleep disorders like hypersomnia (OR, 4.39; 95% CI, 1.07-18.07) and obstructive sleep apnoea (OR, 10.81; 95% CI, 2.39-48.83).
• Women with PCOS had a reduction in visual analogue scale-sexual satisfaction scores compared with those without PCOS (MD, −29.67; 95% CI, −36.97 to −22.37).

Limitations

• Heterogeneity among studies.