Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: An Evolutionary Adaptation to Lifestyle and the Environment.

ABSTRACT: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is increasingly recognized as a complex metabolic disorder that manifests in genetically susceptible women following a range of negative exposures to nutritional and environmental factors related to contemporary lifestyle. The hypothesis that PCOS phenotypes are derived from a mismatch between ancient genetic survival mechanisms and modern lifestyle practices is supported by a diversity of research findings. The proposed evolutionary model of the pathogenesis of PCOS incorporates evidence related to evolutionary theory, genetic studies, in utero developmental epigenetic programming, transgenerational inheritance, metabolic features including insulin resistance, obesity and the apparent paradox of lean phenotypes, reproductive effects and subfertility, the i

SUBMITTER: Parker J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8835454 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature