Weight Loss And Exercise Can Boost Fertility In Women With PCOs

Scientists show that women with a polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) can increase their chance of becoming pregnant through weight loss and exercise.

A woman suffering from PCO produces more male hormones (such as testosterone) than normal that leads to the formation of fluid-filled sacs known as "cysts" on the ovaries.

PCOs lead to female infertility, affecting a woman's menstrual cycle, ability to have children, hormones, heart, blood vessels as well as appearance. While experts do not know much about PCOs, they believe that it is hereditary, with treatments including "lifestyle modification, birth control pills, other medications and surgery", according to Office on Women's Health.

At the Penn State College of Medicine, researchers studied 149 obese and overweight persons aged between 18 to 40 years, who were thought to have PCOS. They were asked to take birth control pills as well as change their lifestyles.

Later, they were given medications to induce ovulation, according to HNGN.

Scientists found that after the test, five (10 percent) of those who took birth control pills got pregnant, while 13 (26 percent) of those changed their diet and exercised, and 12 (24 percent) did both.

Experts concluded that a blend of birth control pills along with lifestyle medication improved ovulation.

"The findings confirm what we have long suspected - that exercise and a healthy diet can improve fertility in women who have PCOS," Richard S. Legro, study co-author and Vice Chair of Research and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Public Health Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine said. "Making preconception lifestyle changes is beneficial, either alone or in combination with other pretreatment options."

The study was published in the Sept. 24 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.