Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: modelling development, phenotype and progression using a developmental paradigm

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Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is common: more than one in twenty young women has this condition. There are many associated health problems including abnormal periods, miscarriages, infertility, excess hair, acne, weight gain and diabetes. As we do not understand what causes PCOS, we can only treat the various symptoms rather than the condition itself. We think that the seeds for PCOS are sown at the beginning of life before birth. Although sheep don?t normally suffer from PCOS, if we change the hormonal environment slightly before birth they develop a lot of features of PCOS as adults. We think similar changes in the environment before birth in women is associated with the development of PCOS. We plan to study the growth and development of these sheep to understand how the different problems of PCOS develop. This will help us understand how PCOS develops and we can use that knowledge to prevent or modify its development. We can then investigate whether there are any changes before puberty that will predict the development of PCOS, study the effects of current treatments and develop and test new treatments.