New PCOS Drug on the Horizon 

Wow cysters this is HUGE! Finally some promise on the horizon for treating women with PCOS. A new PCOS drug has just completed a phase 2 clinical trial. And the results seem quite promising!  Yay – Hooray!

Will this drug help “cure” PCOS? 

While there is no solid consensus for what causes PCOS, we do know there are several trends that exist in this population. One of these trends is that women with PCOS tend to present with higher than normal levels of Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and elevated testosterone levels. It is the “pulse” of these two hormones that is speculated to be responsible for both the absence and abnormalities seen in the menstrual cycles of women with PCOS. This new PCOS drug has the potential to correct these hormonal abnormalities. However, the data is preliminary and much more extensive testing is required. Also due to the fact that PCOS is a syndrome, it is unlikely any single drug would resolve the myriad of symptoms many women with PCOS experience.

When should we expect to see the new PCOS drug on the market? 

It is important to note this PCOS drug has just completed the second of three phases of rigorous testing. In the third and final phase, the drug will be tested in a much larger, diverse population of women with PCOS. Currently the stage 2 phase only examined the effects of the drug after 7 days. In order to successfully reach the market, the new PCOS drug will need to under go much more clinical testing. We can likely assume that the investigators will be interested in the long-term effects of this drug as well as whether or not it can be used side-side with the administration of fertility drugs. But it is likely several more years before these studies are complete.

So until then we will continue to know what works best – diet – exercise – sprinkled with a little metformin and ♥

Fingers crossed  — 🙂

Here is a link to the article. You can click on the actual trial within the press release to examine the various treatment protocols and study demographics.