Tram Town
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Category: ScienceHalf of women infertile 'in a decade'That looks like an attention grabber, doesn't it? Particularly given that the issue, higher incidences of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), seems to be associated with the greatest of modern evils, obesity: Australia's already low fertility rates would plummet as obesity rendered more women unable to fall pregnant.But it did seem a touch overcooked when I read the whole article so I did a bit of research myself. There's no doubting the credentials of Dr David Knight so, even though I can't find anything about Dr Robert David with a bit of rough Googling, I assume him to be similarly qualified. The gist of the report is that, because obesity is a cause of PCOS and obesity rates are going through the roof, we should expect fertility rates to drop. No basis is given for the headline claim, however. But... Looking at pages that discuss PCOS, I constantly came across suggestions that obesity is a symptom not a cause, for example from here: Polycystic ovaries are two to five times larger than normal ovaries, and they have a white, thick, tough outer covering. This condition is commonly called Stein-Leventhal syndrome, and usually develops shortly after puberty.It looks to me as if Knight & David are putting the cart before the horse and making extreme claims as a means of gaining publicity. It would also appear that they are being very unfair on true long-term sufferers of PCOS suggesting that what they really have is a weight problem. Disgusting journalism! |
