Increased Prevalence of Elevated DHEAS in PCOS Women with Non-Classic (B or C) Phenotypes: A Retrospective Analysis in Patients Aged 20 to 29 Years

Abstract

It is well known that a subgroup of women with PCOS present an excessive adrenal androgen production, generally associated with ovarian hyperandrogenism. In the past, it has been impossible to correlate adrenal hyperandrogenism to any clinical or hormonal pattern of PCOS. However, adrenal androgens are strictly dependent on age and their blood values reduce by 40% in patients moving from their twenties to thirties. Due to this, serum DHEAS values are strongly influenced by the age distribution of studied populations. To avoid this bias, in this study we retrospectively analyzed the clinical and hormonal data of PCOS women in their twenties (age between 20 and 29 years). Data of 648 young hyperandrogenic women with PCOS were evaluated. Serum DHEAS was increased in a third (33%) of studied patients and was associated with higher values of testosterone (T) and androstenedione (A). In each phenotype, patients with high DHEAS had higher values of T and A than patients with normal DHEAS of the same phenotype. Therefore, a DHEAS increase is generally part of a generalized higher androgen production in a subgroup of PCOS patients, independently of the finding of anovulatory or ovulatory cycles or of polycystic or normal ovaries. However, our study showed some important differences between PCOS phenotypes. A lower prevalence of increased DHEAS in A phenotype PCOS patients who generally have the highest androgen levels, versus non-classic (B or C) PCOS phenotypes, was observed. It was also found that patients with A phenotype PCOS present significantly lower BMI and serum insulin than patients with normal DHEAS of the same phenotype while, in patients with the B or C phenotype, the opposite occurs. We conclude that adrenal hyperandrogenism is more common in patients with non-classic (B and C) phenotypes of PCOS and is generally part of a generalized higher production of androgens in a subgroup of PCOS patients. However, other factors may increase the adrenal androgen production and influence the clinical expression of the syndrome. More studies in large, selected for age, populations of PCOS women with different phenotypes are needed.