The Effect of Diet and Physical Activity on Obese Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy in women before menopause. However, changing the life style is mentioned as the first line of therapeutic strategy; the researches have shown the different results. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a conducted program based on diet and physical activity on clinical and laboratory characteristics of obese PCOS women.

Fifty women with PCOS randomly divided into two groups. The intervention plan consisted of a 12-week exercise and diet program for one of the group, while the other did not receive such interventions. Participant’s characteristics including demographic, menstrual status, clinical characteristics of hyper-androgenemia, as well as biochemical, hormonal and abdominal ultra-sonography data were evaluated at baseline and 3 months after intervention.

The mean (Standard deviation) of age and body mass index (BMI) were 25.9 (4.13) year, 22.11 (3.96) year and 31.4 (4.85) kg/m2 and 28.81 (3.81) kg/m2 in experimental and control groups respectively. There were significant differences between experimental and control groups for follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) (p=0.01), total testosterone (p=0.005), free testosterone (p=0.004), estradiol (p=0.03), sex- hormone bounding globulin (SHBG), triiodotyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) and TSH (p=0.001), 17 hydroxy progesterone and triglycerides (p=0.03), total cholesterol (p=0.05), BMI (p=0.03), the ultrasound exam, oligomenorrhea, hirsutism and acne (p <0.001) and alopecia (p=0.01).

Regular exercise and dietary intervention can be recommended as non-pharmacological interventions to PCOS patients