Polycystic ovary syndrome, women's health and religious freedom, and building better cancer treatments

episode

Health Report 28 min 1 speaker 8 chapters transcribed just now

▲ 0

Transcript

jump: chapters · speakers · find in transcript

Transcript

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Unknown 0:01

This is an ABC podcast.

Olivia Willis 0:05

Hello and welcome to The Health Report. I'm Olivia Willis and I'm sitting in for Dr Norman Swan today with a special edition of the program as part of the ABC's International Women's Day celebrations. We're taking a brief hiatus from coronavirus coverage to look at what else is happening in the world of health. If you're after the latest on coronavirus, you can head to the ABC's new coronavirus podcast. It's called Coronacast for more. Today on the show, the federal government's revamped religious bill is set to be introduced to Parliament soon, but several health bodies have raised concerns that it will create confusion around conscientious objection for doctors and potentially lead to poor patient outcomes.

What is PCOS and why is it considered the most common hormonal disorder in women?

Olivia Willis 0:43

And in Queensland, researchers have discovered that a drug already available for the treatment of travel sickness and psychosis may also help in the treatment of cancer. And the discovery, like lots of good science, was made rather serendipitously. But first up, it's said to be the most common hormonal disorder diagnosed in young women. Polycystic ovary syndrome, sometimes known as PCOS or PCOS, is associated with weight gain, irregular periods, acne and signs of excessive male hormones. PCOS is often thought of as being underdiagnosed, but a new study of Australian doctors has found that many are concerned it is in some cases being misdiagnosed or overdiagnosed. Researchers at the University of Sydney interviewed GPs, gynaecologists and endocrinologists and found that there is still a great deal of uncertainty and even some disagreement when it comes to making a diagnosis.

Olivia Willis 1:35

And among patients, misconceptions about the condition, including its impact on fertility, are still fairly widespread. Tessa Kopp is a research fellow at the University of Sydney and she led this research and I spoke with her a little bit earlier. She began by telling me what PCOS is and how

Tessa Kopp 1:52

it's diagnosed. Polycystic ovary syndrome is probably the most common hormonal disorder affecting reproductive aged women. There's a few different criteria out there but probably the most common diagnostic criteria requires two out of three features or criteria to be met. So those include irregular cycles there's also polycystic ovaries and ultrasound or signs of excess male pattern hormones so that can be either symptoms of excess testosterone such as acne excess hair growth hair loss for some women or it can be higher levels of androgens in blood the blood results

Olivia Willis 2:32

Okay. And so meeting two of the

Tessa Kopp 2:34

three.

Olivia Willis 2:34

Okay. And what makes the line seemingly blurry around diagnosis? Because a lot of the clinicians that you spoke to said that there is no kind of clear line or that can be, it can be hard to see.

Tessa Kopp 2:46

yeah absolutely so a lot of clinicians talked about how they often saw women for whom the diagnosis was unclear or it was uncertain so the thing about pcos is it's the symptoms are on a spectrum of severity so they can really vary in the degree of severity that women are affected and it can be unclear when normal finishes and the abnormal begins and These symptoms can also change over time and they're influenced by a number of factors such as weight, ethnicity and also your age. Right.

Olivia Willis 3:18

And presumably things like irregular periods, weight gain, acne, they're also things that are just quite common for young women of a reproductive age. So I imagine that also makes it quite challenging in working out, OK, is this just normal or is there something else going on?

How do clinicians diagnose PCOS and why is the diagnostic criteria controversial?

Tessa Kopp 3:33

Yeah absolutely that's right so these symptoms are very common during adolescence so sometimes it might need to just note the adolescent at risk and follow up over time to confirm the diagnosis because certainly irregular cycles and acne are very common during adolescence. And

Olivia Willis 3:51

polycystic ovaries themselves they're not necessarily an indicator of the condition either?

Tessa Kopp 3:56

No, so unfortunately the name is quite inaccurate. So you don't have to have polycystic ovaries to have polycystic ovary syndrome. And actually lots of women without PCOS can have polycystic ovary findings on ultrasound.