Weight loss and exercise in PCOS Study 2006

Australia and other Western communities face an “epidemic of obesity” among its people, particularly in the young. The health problems of obesity include diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, micro- and macrovascular disease, disability and early death. Major public health interventions are required in Australia to reverse this serious and expensive trend. This is particularly true in young overweight women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) who have significant psychological, reproductive and metabolic consequences during the first five decades of life. Although research indicates that weight loss via dietary restriction can restore health and reverse the reproductive and metabolic consequences of PCOS, there is a lack of scientific understanding of the combined role of physical exercise in managing this condition. Furthermore, there remains no attempt to define the optimal mode of exercise to achieve long-term reproductive fitness and metabolic health and consequently a lack of exercise recommendations for this population exists. The overall significance of this research proposal is to provide scientific evidence for the effects of physical exercise combined with dietary weight loss to improve ovulatory rates and reproductive health in overweight women with PCOS. This study will also provide information on what, if any, is the most efficacious form of exercise for improving reproductive function in this patient group. This information will assist in the development and refinement of guidelines for managing PCOS through lifestyle behavioural change. Precise guidelines would be of great use for firstly improving conception rates through improvements in the metabolic state and secondly through minimising longer term diabetic and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Systematic study of the effects of exercise and variants of its modalities in combination with dietary change is imperative in order to make appropriate public health recommendation and to counsel individual patients.