Is Maternal PCOS Associated with Adverse Perinatal Outcomes in Offspring?

To determine if polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has an impact on pregnancy and the resulting progeny, investigators in Western Australia used statewide data linkage systems from 1997 to 2011 in a retrospective cohort study of 2566 women aged ≥18 who were hospitalized with PCOS among the admission diagnoses and 25,660 women hospitalized without PCOS diagnoses. Number of pregnancies, perinatal outcomes, congenital anomalies, and health of the offspring were assessed in both groups.

Overall, 70% of women with PCOS and 63% of those without PCOS had one or more pregnancies; individually, however, each woman with PCOS had significantly fewer pregnancies (P<0.001 for both comparisons). Women with PCOS were more likely to have undergone in vitro fe…