According to the popular notion, we credit the incidence of “Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)” to give rise to ‘female-to-male transsexuals’; however a new study suggests that there are higher levels of androgen among the ‘Female to Male Transsexuals’. This new study has tried to diagnose PCOS by doing assessment of female-to-male transsexuals on the updated methodology and data and they have also included the results of ‘Transvaginal Ultrasonography (TS)’ adopted for its first kind of evaluation done for female-to-male transsexuals.

‘Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)’ is a condition where there is misbalance of women hormones in the human body which generally initiates with upsetting of the periods in women, one hormonal change giving rise to another, and consequently producing more of androgens which are male sex hormones. This gives growth to extra facial and body hair, occurrence of acne and weight gain. If the symptoms are not treat at the early stage, it might along with these physical irregularities in a woman, may give rise to serious diseases like diabetes and heart diseases as it affects the release of insulin too in the body.

The study was conducted among a group of 61 female-to-male transsexual patients. These patients had never been administered any kind of hormonal medication during the treatment. The results were drawn taking into account the complete diagnostic procedures described in the ‘National Institutes of Health’ 1990 and Rotterdam 2003 criteria. The scientists also utilized the results out of ultrasound, clinical and biochemical tests done on this group. The result was then compared with the data collected among the 94 healthy unselected controls.

Higher levels of androgen were found among the patients and there was a likelihood of its being originated out of ovarian problems. However the researchers say that it might have also been possible that the patients had taken any kind of androgen therapy before, which went undetected, and could have led to higher androgen levels.

The major advancement in this study was that it studied a larger group of patients to reach the conclusion. Moreover it brought in use various techniques which were completely missing in the previous studies like ultrasound etc. for better diagnosis.

Dr. Andreas Mueller of Erlangen University Hospital in Erlangen, Germany says “This is the first prospective endocrine evaluation of using up-to-date state-of-the-art criteria incorporating for diagnosing PCOS or hyperandrogenemia”. Louis J. Gooren of Free University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Susanne Naton-Schotz, Susanne Cupisti, Matthias Beckmann, and Ralf Dittrich of Erlangen University Hospital in Erlangen, Germany were other researchers who contributed to the study.