Kyrou, Ioannis, Karteris, Emmanouil, Robbins, Tim, Chatha, Kamaljit, Drenos, Fotios and Randeva, Harpal S. (2020). Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and COVID-19: an overlooked female patient population at potentially higher risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Medicine, 18 (1),
Abstract
Background In women of reproductive age, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) constitutes the most frequent endocrine disorder. Women with PCOS are considered to typically belong to an age and sex group which is at lower risk for severe COVID-19. Main body Emerging data link the risk of severe COVID-19 with certain factors such as hyper-inflammation, ethnicity predisposition, low vitamin D levels, and hyperandrogenism, all of which have known direct associations with PCOS. Moreover, in this common female patient population, there is markedly high prevalence of multiple cardio-metabolic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, which may significantly increase the risk for adverse COVID-19-related outcomes. This strong overlap of risk factors for both worse PCOS cardio-metabolic manifestations and severe COVID-19 should be highlighted for the clinical practice, particularly since women with PCOS often receive fragmented care from multiple healthcare services. Comprehensively informing women with PCOS regarding the potential risks from COVID-19 and how this may affect their management is also essential. Conclusion Despite the immense challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak to the healthcare systems in affected countries, attention should be directed to maintain a high standard of care for complex patients such as many women with PCOS and provide relevant practical recommendations for optimal management in the setting of this fast moving pandemic.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01697-5 |
---|---|
Divisions: | College of Health & Life Sciences > Aston Medical School College of Health & Life Sciences > Aston Medical School > Translational Medicine Research Group (TMRG) |
Additional Information: | © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Androgens,COVID-19,Diabetes,Hypertension,Obesity,PCOS,Polycystic ovary syndrome,SARS-CoV-2,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2,Vitamin D,General Medicine |
Publication ISSN: | 1741-7015 |
Last Modified: | 16 Aug 2024 07:03 |
Date Deposited: | 17 Jul 2020 07:57 |
Full Text Link: | |
Related URLs: |
https://bmcmedi ... 916-020-01697-5
(Publisher URL) http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Article |
Published Date: | 2020-07-15 |
Accepted Date: | 2020-07-02 |
Authors: |
Kyrou, Ioannis
(![]() Karteris, Emmanouil Robbins, Tim Chatha, Kamaljit Drenos, Fotios Randeva, Harpal S. |