Effects of hyperandrogenism on metabolic abnormalities in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The study evaluated the effect of hyperandrogenism (HA) in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) on metabolic parameters. METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, Web of Science, Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang data and VIP for clinical observational studies. The study evaluated PCOS patients with or without HA on metabolic parameters was included. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome, indexes of insulin resistance (IR) including homeostasis model assessment IR index (HOMA-IR), incidence of IR, biomarkers of serum lipid metabolism such as total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL), and low density lipoprotein (LDL). RESULTS: Of 4457 identified trials, 32 observational studies were included for the final analysis comprising 9556 female with PCOS. 6482 cases were having HA, and the others were negative. There were significant differences in the incidence of metabolic syndrome, HOMA-IR, rate of IR, TC level and HDL level between PCOS patients with or without HA, except for LDL level. No significant publication bias was found as P value of Egger’s test was 0.82. CONCLUSIONS: HA play an important role in metabolic disorders in PCOS patients. The incidence of metabolic syndrome, IR indexes, and most biomarkers of serum lipid metabolism were significantly different between patients with and without HA.