Pregnancy complications in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

The great majority of studies performed so far concerning women diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have focused on diagnosis, menstrual cycle abnormalities, hirsutism and infertility. Although progress has been made in developing methods for achieving a pregnancy and reducing multiple gestations in women with PCOS, little attention has been paid to pregnancy complications and subsequent child outcomes. This review aims to summarize current knowledge regarding the clinical and pathophysiological features of pregnancy and children in women with PCOS.

A literature search up to April 2015 was performed in PubMed, Medline, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science without language restriction. All articles were initially screened for title and abstract and full texts of eligible articles were subsequently selected. Systematic reviews with meta-analysis were initially included for each specific subject. Recent randomised controlled trials (RCTs), which were not included in the systematic reviews, were also included. In addition to evidence from meta-analyses or RCTs, we used non-randomized prospective, uncontrolled prospective, retrospective and experimental studies. When specific data for patients with PCOS were lacking, results from general population studies were reported.