The role of metformin in reducing rate of abortion in women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

Abstract

The most frequent cause of anovulatory infertility globally is the result of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). A lot of women with PCOS experience difficulty in getting pregnant naturally. Furthermore, when women with PCOS get pregnant they will face the risk of early pregnancy abortion as PCOS increases the risk of abortion in early pregnancy by 5 folds. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of metformin treatment in PCOS pregnant ladies compared to a control group in which metformin will not be used. The present +case-control study included 100 pregnant women who were already diagnosed to have PCOS and they were categorized into two groups, the first group included 50 women who were given metformin treatment and the second group (50 women) were given no metformin treatment in order to serve as a control group. The results of this study revealed that the rate of abortion in the study group was 9 out of 50 (18%) and this rate was significantly lower than that of the control group; 21 out of 50 (42%); (P=0.009). Moreover, estimation of odds ratio showed that the use of metformin reduced the rate of abortion to 0.303 (95% CI of 0.121-0.756) and the preventive fraction (PF) was 0.408. Metformin is the safe and effective mode of treatment when used to reduce the rate of abortion in PCOS women.