ABSTRACT
Since patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) commonly have insulin resistance, albeit with normal glucose tolerance, we evaluated glucose tolerance in PCOS patients exposed to the diabetogenic effect of pregnancy. The clinical material was obtained from two centers, in Springfield, Illinois (22 patients), and New York, New York (31 patients), and the results were compared with a control population with 2,306 consecutive general pregnancies. There were no differences between PCOS patients from the two centers in regard to age or ponderal index (P greater than .1). A review of the medical records showed that the incidence of gestational diabetes in the PCOS patients was 7.5%, similar (P greater than .1) to the 6.6% frequency of gestational diabetes in the controls. The overall incidence of neonatal macrosomia (birth weight greater than 4,000 g) was 7% (4 of 57) among infants born to PCOS women. That was similar to the 12.4% incidence of neonatal macrosomia among infants born to women with normal glucose tolerance and to the 14.5% incidence among infants born to women with gestational diabetes. Preexisting PCOS does not appear to increase the risk of developing gestational diabetes or neonatal macrosomia.
