Bad medicine: polycystic ovary syndrome

About a third of the female population is estimated to have polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition often still called polycystic ovary disease or its scary Teutonic ancestor, Stein-Leventhal syndrome (BMJ 2009;338:a2968, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2968). It is linked to infertility, is considered a metabolic prediabetic syndrome, and is linked with oestrogenic tumours of the breast and endometrium. The syndrome is widely treated, and drugs such as metformin, rosiglitazone (now recognised to have adverse effects), and simvastatin have been used. It has filled many a column inch and sold millions of magazines by …