Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) awareness among young women in Tobruk, Libya.

Background: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOs) is a common chronic multisystem endocrine disorder in young reproductive aged women, PCOS is often associated with chronic anovulation, obesity and impairs reproductive health, it increased risk of adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes, and it’s one of the leading causes of infertility, if it’s not treated can develop serious health problems, especially if they are overweight: As type 2 DM, Heart disease, endometrial carcinoma and psychological features and worsened quality of life. Not all women who have PCOS receive a formal diagnosis or if they do, it may take years and several different doctors before diagnosis is made. This may be attributable to both a lack of awareness and educational material available at the correct level for individuals and healthcare providers so, this study was aiming to assess the level of awareness regarding Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome among young women of age group between 18-30 years in Tobruk , Libya. Methods: cross sectional research analysis, using an online link of the web-based multiple-choice questionnaire “Google Forms”, the questionnaire link was distributed randomly mainly using the social media and messengers. The study was conducted on the month of September 2021 after ethical clearance from the Research Ethics Committee of Tobruk University. Results: We had a total of 373 sample size for analysis, the distribution of the samples on demographic characteristics revealed that about 50% of the sample were in the age group between 25-30 years, 92.8% of the studied females were university graduates, 327(87.7%) had moderately adequate knowledge and there is a strong relation between the level of education and level of knowledge about PCOS, also there is a statistical significant between the age and the level of knowledge where the age group between 20-24 had a moderately adequate knowledge. 58% of them received information’s about PCOS from Health Personal, and There is a large number of participants have a poor life style where 84.7% of participant like junk foods which is a risk factor for obesity and other metabolic issues related to PCOS. Conclusion: There is a good level of awareness of PCOS among majority of young women in Tobruk. The Health Personal and Social Media were the prevalent source of information.