Women with PCOS and sleep apnea more likely to develop prediabetes

 Published on June 27, 2012 Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) who also have obstructive sleep apnea have at least three times the risk of having prediabetes compared with women who do not have PCOS, according to a new study. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. "In the last few years, sleep apnea has been found to be a frequent comorbidity [coexisting condition] with PCOS, and our study shows that women who have both conditions are at greatest risk of metabolic disturbances such as prediabetes," said the study's senior author, David Ehrmann, MD, a University of Chicago professor of medicine and director of the University of Chicago Center for PCOS. "Patients who have one or both of these conditions should be screened early for Type 2 diabetes and should be monitored regularly," Ehrmann said. He and his colleagues studied 171 obese women: 121 with PCOS, a common female hormonal disorder that affects 5 to 10 percent of women of childbearing age, and 50 without PCOS. All study subjects had an oral glucose tolerance test, which measures the blood sugar level before and for two hours after the patient drinks a sugary solution. If the blood glucose level at two hours is less than 140 mg/dL, it is considered normal. Levels above 200 mg/dL indicate Type 2 diabetes, and levels between 140 and 200 mg/dL are diagnostic of impaired glucose tolerance, also called prediabetes. Prediabetes often progresses to Type 2 diabetes.