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Quality of Life in Infertile Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: a Comparative Study

  • Reproductive Endocrinology: Original Article
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Abstract

To investigate the quality of life (QoL) of infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and analyze the association between the clinical/biochemical features of PCOS and the physical/psychological well-being of patients. An observational study with three independent groups women was designed including 37 infertile PCOS patients, 36 women with tubal factor infertility, and 31 women with male factor infertility referred to the Reproductive Medicine Unit of the Hospital Clinic Barcelona from December 2017 to June 2019. Clinical history, physical examination including Ferriman-Gallwey scores, and vaginal ultrasound were carried out in all patients. All subjects completed the 36-item Short Form Health Survey, and PCOS patients were asked to fill out the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Questionnaire. The IBM SPSS 23.0 was used for the statistical analysis. Infertile women with PCOS reported significantly worse QoL scores of social functioning (p = 0.049), emotional role functioning (p = 0.041), mental health (p = 0.002), and the mental component summary (p = 0.002) compared with women with other causes of infertility. In addition, body pain (p = 0.006), general health (p < 0.001), and vitality (p = 0.002) scores were significantly lower in women with PCOS compared with those with male factor infertility. Infertile PCOS patients showed low scores in all domains of the PCOSQ. Hirsutism and weight gain were the factors most associated with impaired health-related QoL in PCOS. Infertile PCOS women presented worse QoL mainly due to psychological and emotional distress. The main predictors were clinical manifestations of hyperandrogenism and weight gain.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the women who kindly volunteered to participate in this study.

Contribution to Authorship

Contributors: IN and CCB took part in patient recruitment for the study, GC carried out the physical examinations and the SF-36 and the PCOSQ questionnaires. CCB and IN designed the study. IN, CCB, IK, and GC took part in the analysis and interpretation of data, and revision of the draft. IN and CCB wrote the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

All authors had full access to all of the data in the study (including statistical reports and tables) and can take responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine and Heatlh Sciences, PhD Program, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Iuliia Naumova

  2. Faculty of General Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Saratov State Medical University n.a. V.I. Razumovsky, Saratov, Russia

    Iuliia Naumova

  3. Clinic Institute of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Neonatology. Hospital Clinic Barcelona, Faculty of Medicine-University of Barcelona-Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Villarroel 170, 08036, Barcelona, Spain

    Camil Castelo-Branco & Gemma Casals

  4. Reproductive Health Department, State Institution Clinical Perinatal Centre of the Saratov Region, Saratov, Russia

    Iuliia Kasterina

Authors
  1. Iuliia Naumova
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  2. Camil Castelo-Branco
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  3. Iuliia Kasterina
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  4. Gemma Casals
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Camil Castelo-Branco.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (November 29, 2017 HCB/2017/0614) and was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki II and the ICH Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice.

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The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov; identifier: NCT03306459, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03306459?cond=PCOS&cntry=ES&city=Barcelona&draw=2&rank=3

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Naumova, I., Castelo-Branco, C., Kasterina, I. et al. Quality of Life in Infertile Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: a Comparative Study. Reprod. Sci. 28, 1901–1909 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-020-00394-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-020-00394-1

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