The effect of three months of unsupervised aerobic exercise and low-calorie diet on hormonal, metabolic and anthropometric parameters of overweight and obese infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of three months of lifestyle interventions including unsupervised moderate intensity aerobic exercise and low-calorie diet on hormonal, metabolic and anthropometric parameters in overweight and obese infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The method of this study was experimental with pretest-posttest design and applied approach. Among infertile women with PCOS referred to Arash Hospital in Tehran, 20 women (age 27.9±2.5 years, weight 81.36±8.05 kg and body mass index 30.27±1.97 kg/m2) were selected as the statistical sample and randomly were divided into two experimental (n=10) and control (n=10) groups. Exercise program and diet were prescribed based on the demographic characteristics of the experimental group. Hormonal, metabolic and anthropometric parameters of the subjects were measured before and after three months.Intragroup comparison was performed with paired sample t-test and intergroup comparison with ANKOVA test in spss software (P<0.05). In the experimental group, a significant decrease in antimullerian hormone (P=0.016) and total testosterone (P=0.000) was observed. Also, weight, BMI, WC, WHR (P=0.000), systolic blood pressure (P=0.003), fasting blood glucose (P=0.019), TG (P=0.000) and LDL (P=0.035) significantly decreased and HDL (P=0.002) significantly increased. Therefore, it is recommended that this type of interventions be prescribed before or simultaneously with medical treatment for overweight and obese infertile women with PCOS.