Thyroid Function Status and Thyroid Hormones Disturbances in Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

A close association between thyroid problems and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) has been recently raised suggesting common pathophysiological link between the two disease conditions. The present study aimed to assess the status of thyroid hormones in women with PCOS with the aim of clarifying the link between PCOS and thyroid abnormalities. This cross-sectional study was performed on 87 consecutive women aged 31 to 50 years finally diagnosed as PCOS based on the Rotterdam diagnostic criteria. Venous blood sample was extracted from all subjects to determine the levels of fasting blood glucose, hemoglobin A1C, serum insulin level and also thyroid hormones in a single laboratory. The mean serum level of TSH was 3.02±1.19 µIU/ml, the mean level of T4 was 7.22±1.81 µg/dl, and the mean level of T3 was 1.23±0.18 ng/ml. Based on the normal values of thyroid hormones, none of the PCOS patients had abnormal levels of TSH and T3 hormones. Also, normal level of T4 was revealed in 90.8% of patients, while only 6.9% and 2.3% had T4 level lower than and higher than the normal range respectively. Using the correlation tests, none of the thyroid hormones was linearly associated with age, weight, BMI, the value of FBS or the levels of lipid profiles. The high prevalence rate of overweight to obesity (97.7%), hypertriglyceridemia (65.5%), and uncontrolled glycemic status (21.8%) were prominent in PCOS women. In our observation, we found no significant link between abnormal changes in thyroid hormone and PCOS.