Awareness and opinion about polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) among young women: a developing country perspective.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the perception on PCOS and its prevalence among adolescent and young women.

METHODS

The study was conducted over 2 year period in a tertiary care teaching hospital from Eastern India. A pre-formed, validated questionnaire was used to record the details. Descriptive statistics was used to report the findings.

RESULTS

Of 965 young patients with mean (SD) age 20.64 (2.1) years, 27 (2.79 %) were aware of an entity called PCOS. Awareness among adolescents with PCOS was 25.9 % (7/27). All aware patients belonged to the urban sector with professionals constituting around 48%, of which 11% were students. The major source of information among aware patients was from doctors (40.7%), and friends and Internet (25.9%); rest being from books, newspapers, and teachers. Majority (70%) were aware that diet restriction and exercise were the primary modalities of treatment, whereas, only 3.7% knew about the role of contraceptive pills in PCOS.

CONCLUSIONS

Awareness regarding PCOS among the young women is very low mainly in the rural set up. Doctors and health staffs should play a major role in spreading awareness of the entity to prevent long term complications.