Study: Sons of women with PCOS up to twice as likely to develop obesity

About 2 in 100 Swedish boys born to mothers with PCOS became obese during childhood, compared to about 1 in 100 for boys whose mothers did not have PCOS.

The risk was highest in the sons of women who had PCOS and a body mass index (BMI) over 25 and highest in the sons of women who had both PCOS and had not taken any metformin during pregnancy.

The researchers followed up the analysis with an RNA sequencing study that found higher cholesterol levels in the sons of Chilean women with PCOS than in controls.

In another analysis, researchers fed a group of mice a fatty, sugary diet and exposed them to high levels of dihydrotestosterone, a hormone that mimics that of pregnant women with PCOS. Their sons were born with metabolic issues that persisted into adulthood, even when they followed a healthy diet throughout their lives.

“We could see that these male mice had more adipose tissue, larger fat cells and a disordered basal metabolism, despite a healthy diet,” explains Elisabet Stener-Victorin, a researcher in reproductive endocrinology and metabolism at the Institute. Karolinska in Sweden and the lead author of the study, in a press release.

PCOS is common: According to a 2020 literature reviewit affects up to 20% of women worldwide, i.e. 1 in 5 women. condition, which occurs when a woman’s body produces more male hormones than usual, causes multiple ovarian cysts and can lead to infertility, excess body hair and irregular periods. Women with PCOS are at higher risk for diabetes, heart problems and other conditions.

In 2019, the same research team find that daughters of women with PCOS are five times more likely to be diagnosed with the syndrome.