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Infertility breakthrough

Scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust have found one of the causes of a disease that leads to infertility, miscarriages and obesity in thousands of women.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) can also cause excessive hair growth and irregular periods, and is believed to affect between 5-10 per cent of pre-menopausal women in England and Wales. It occurs when there is an increase in the male hormone testosterone, which is also present in females.

In a paper published by Nature Genetics online today (13 July)
University of Birmingham's Professor Paul Stewart and colleagues, working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility, report finding a defect in the cortisol-cortisone hormones which causes higher levels of testosterone to be produced.

Further research is underway to determine the extent of this problem but Professor Stewart estimates it could affect up to five per cent of PCOS sufferers.

The cortisol-cortisone deficiency can only be detected through testing steroid levels in the urine. However these can be conducted in a 24-hour period and the problem treated with other steroid hormones.

"This syndrome is a serious problem for many thousands of women," said Professor Stewart. "So even if we are helping just a small proportion of those who suffer from it we will have taken a big step forward.

"We are conducting more detailed research but I am confident we have made significant inroads into our understanding and treatment of this problem."

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome was first identified in 1935 and although its main cause has still not been discovered there are some indications that it may have an inherited basis. Its name is derived from the fact that the ovaries contain many small cysts.

ENDS

* The Wellcome Trust has invested more than £20m in five Clinical Research Facilities established in Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester and Southampton, which were opened two years ago. A variety of studies are undertaken at these centres, looking at, among other things, heart disease, food allergies, diabetes, cancer and sleeping disorders.

For more information contact

Barry Gardner
Wellcome Trust Press Office
Tel: 020 7611 7329

Liz Reubens
Press Officer at the University of Birmingham
Tel: 0121 414 5134
Mobile: 0778 992 1163

Notes to Editors:

The Wellcome Trust is an independent research-funding charity established in 1936 under the will of tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome. The Trust's mission is to promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health.