New guidelines establish diagnostic criteria and support strategies for managing PCOS symptoms in adolescents, indicating potential health improvements.
For up to eight years after menarche, adolescents are in a developmental stage where PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) symptoms are physiological. The diagnostic criteria for PCOS in adult women therefore only partially apply. A new German S2k guideline and the international PCOS guideline of 2023 provide standardized diagnostic criteria for hyperandrogenemia and menstrual disorders in adolescence. The provisional diagnosis of PCOS at risk has been introduced for adolescents who only partially meet the criteria and this diagnosis must be revisited three and eight years after menarche. Recommendations for therapy focus on providing information and lifestyle advice to adolescents and on the prevention and treatment of possible comorbidities such as obesity, insulin resistance and hypertension. This paper presents an overview of a structured diagnostic workup and therapeutic approaches to support adolescents with PCOS.
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Wechsung et al. (2025) studied this question.
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