Should patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome be treated with metformin?
Abstract
The recognition of insulin resistance as a principal factor in the pathogenesis of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) has led to the use of insulin-lowering agents, also called 'insulin-sensitizing drugs', for its treatment. The most extensively studied insulin-lowering agent in the treatment of PCOS is metformin: an oral antihyperglycaemic agent used initially in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Metformin is effective in the treatment of PCOS-related anovulation and infertility. Moreover, preliminary evidence indicates that metformin may also be effective in decreasing the risk of early spontaneous miscarriage in women with PCOS. Metformin also appears to induce cardioprotective effects on serum lipids as well as plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 and may decrease the risk of development of type 2 diabetes. The highly promising therapeutic profile of metformin is related to the role of this agent in controlling an important aetiologic factor in the pathogenesis of PCOS: hyperinsulinaemia.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Metformin as an adjuvant in breast cancer treatment
- Metformin Lysosomal Targeting: A Novel Aspect to Be Investigated for Metformin Repurposing in Neurodegenerative Diseases?
- Aberrant HSF1 signaling activation underlies metformin amelioration of myocardial infarction in mice
- Metformin induces ZFP36 by mTORC1 inhibition in cervical cancer-derived cell lines
- Protein Interaction Network for Identifying Vascular Response of Metformin (Oral Antidiabetic)
- Preventing Long COVID With Metformin
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.