A revelation in heart disease research at TQEH has shown that young women who suffer from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome may have an increased risk of heart disease.

“Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a common disease effecting about 10% of pre-menopausal women and is the most common cause of infertility,” said Dr Alicia Chan, Cardiologist at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Dr Chan, who is the primary researcher involved with the project, has conducted a preliminary study which investigated two risk factors for heart disease, blood clotting ability and blood vessel stiffness in a group of 20-30 year old women.

“We compared women with PCOS to those who don’t suffer from the disease and found that even at this young age, the blood of women with PCOS clotted more easily and their blood vessels were stiffer, highlighting that they are at greater risk of heart disease,” she said.

“The remarkable thing we found is that these results were regardless of whether or not the women were overweight or whether they had diabetes. This suggests that even if you don’t have any other factors such as these, it still means that women with PCOS are at higher risk of heart disease than women without PCOS.”

“What was also scary about our project was that the abnormalities we found in this group of younger women were similar to results we would get from older women in their 60’s with known heart disease,” she said.

The results of this study are ground-breaking, in that it is the first study to suggest PCOS itself may be a risk factor for heart disease in younger women regardless of weight or evidence of diabetes.

A larger cohort of women between 20-60 years old is currently being recruited to confirm the alarming results of this study.

“We are aiming to recruit 160 women and hopefully we will have most of our data by July,” said Dr Chan.

“Depending on what the results are, our ultimate goal will then be to trial existing medications to test their effectiveness at preventing the blood clotting and blood vessel stiffening, thus reducing risk of heart disease in these women,” she said.