Insulin Resistance In Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Progress

With a prevalence of 5%-10%, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrine diseases affecting women in adolescence and at reproductive age.The features of PCOS are chronic anovulation or few ovulations which results in irregular menstruation or amenorrhea,polycystic ovaries increased in size and hyperandrogenism. In addition, it is also characterized by insulin resistance (IR) andβ-cell dysfunction. PCOS has a long history of more than seventy years since its discovery. As the progress of modern medicine great changes have taken place in the knowledge of diagnosis and pathogenesis of PCOS, though it is not definitely clear of the pathogenesis of it, more and more research have proved that there is a significant relationship between the incidence of PCOS and insulin resistance (IR).It has been known that IR plays an important role in the complication of PCOS. In terms of reproduction, the fallen of pregnancy rate of patients with PCOS is closely related with Armand IR also give rise to the higher prevalence rate of spontaneous abortion during pregnancy and gestational diabetes in patients with PCOS than in the general population. Besides, these patients'higher risk of suffering from endometrial cancer is also bound up with IR. At the same time, these patients'incidence of metabolic syndrome (MS) is increased. Metabolic syndrome has a significant relationship with cardiovascular risk and IR is the important tie of them. According to this, PCOS is not only a reproductive problem but a complex endocrine disease relating to other system with important health implications, which will has a bad influence on patients'long-term health condition, and IR plays a vital role in it. At present,extensive researches on the IR of PCOS patients made by many scholars of modern medicine point out that it is effective to improve PCOS patients'endocrine condition and their reproduction by the improvement of their insulin resistance. To achieve this aim, lifestyle adjustment can be an efficient measure. Besides, oral hypoglycemic drug is also one of the effective methods to treat the insulin resistance of patients with PCOS. Research shows that taking oral hypoglycemic drugs in pregnancy can reduce the incidence of pregnancy complications, but it is still necessary to do further study on its application in pregnancy. Although in classical books of traditional Chinese medicine, there is no such kind of disease named PCOS in record, the symptoms of PCOS can be seen respectively in chapters of "delayed menstruation", "scant menstruation", "amenorrhea" and "infertility". As to the causes and mechanism of PCOS-IR, traditional Chinese medicine has its original idea, which commonly regards the causes and mechanism of it as kidney deficiency pattern and pattern of spleen deficiency with dampness encumbrance. Studies on syndrome types of TCM in patients with PCOS-IR have proved this opinion. Therefore, in treatment, traditional Chinese medicine stresses on replenishing the kidney, fortifying the spleen, resolving the turbidity, and unblocking the meridian. In recent years, some convincing evidences have showed in studies data that the treatment of traditional Chinese medicine can improve the insulin resistance (IR) of patients with PCOS. However, further study on the prevention and treatment by traditional Chinese medicine of the complications of patients with PCOS-IR is still needed.