The natural history of the metabolic syndrome in young women with the polycystic ovary syndrome and the effect of long‐term oestrogen–progestagen treatment

Abstract

These data indicate that hyperinsulinaemia and insulin resistance tended to worsen spontaneously in women with PCOS, without any worsening of the hyperandrogenism. Long-term oestrogen-progestagen treatment countered this tendency, probably because it improved the pattern of body fat distribution, by reducing abdominal fat depots.