A higher pre diabetes risk status for women with obstructive sleep apena and polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS was revealed in a study, to be featured in the Endocrine Society’s annually held gathering.
Initiated by David Ehrmann, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago and Director, University of Chicago Center for PCOS, the study asserts that women afflicted with PCOS and obstructive sleep apnea are three times for likely to develop pre diabetes conditions when compared against those who do not have PCOS.
“In the last few years, sleep apnea has been found to be a frequent comorbidity [coexisting condition] with PCOS, and our study shows that women who have both conditions are at greatest risk of metabolic disturbances such as prediabetes,” shares Ehrmann.
“Patients who have one or both of these conditions should be screened early for Type 2 diabetes and should be monitored regularly,” he further comments.
The study involved the implementation of oral glucose tolerance tests, involving 171 overweight women, with 121 of that 171 having PCOS, and it was revealed that those with PCOS are more at risk in developing pre diabetes.
The study also found out that lower levels of progesterone, the female hormone, leads to higher blood sugar values. For women with PCOS, lower progesterone levels are known to be, and proponents of the study are suggesting that the lowered progesterone levels in PCOS conditions may be a contributory factor in the at-risk-for-pre-diabetes discovery of the study.
With pre diabetes being a known pre cursor in the development of full blown diabetes conditions, women with PCOS and sleep apnea should consider having themselves screened for pre diabetes, before the condition compounds into more complicated diabetes conditions.
