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Twelve questions to see whether your symptoms fit the pattern of polycystic ovary syndrome.
PCOS affects somewhere between one in five and one in ten women of reproductive age in India, and a large share of them go years without a diagnosis because the symptoms arrive separately and each one gets explained away on its own. Irregular periods, stubborn weight, acne that will not settle, unwanted hair. This questionnaire counts the features together and tells you whether the overall pattern is worth investigating. It takes about three minutes, nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere, and it is emphatically not a diagnosis. Only blood tests and a pelvic ultrasound can confirm PCOS.
Doctors use the Rotterdam criteria, which need at least two of these three findings. A questionnaire can only point at the first two, and indirectly.
Cycles longer than 35 days, fewer than eight periods a year, or none at all. This is the feature most women notice first, and the one that brings them in.
Either visible signs such as excess hair, persistent acne or scalp thinning, or raised testosterone on a blood test. One or the other is enough.
Twelve or more small follicles on an ovary, or an enlarged ovarian volume, seen on ultrasound. Despite the name, these are follicles rather than true cysts.
Thyroid disease, raised prolactin and adrenal conditions produce a similar picture and must be excluded first. That is why bloods come before any diagnosis.
Whatever this assessment shows, the useful next steps are the same three.
Track your cycle length for three months, and note the symptoms you answered yes to. Walking into a consultation with dates rather than impressions changes the conversation entirely, and it is the single most useful thing you can do before an appointment.
A useful first panel covers thyroid function, prolactin, fasting glucose and insulin or HbA1c, testosterone, and LH with FSH taken early in the cycle, alongside a pelvic ultrasound. Knowing the list means you are less likely to be sent away with reassurance and no numbers.
PCOS is a metabolic condition as much as a reproductive one, and the insulin resistance behind it builds quietly for years. Treating it early protects against type 2 diabetes later, whether or not you are thinking about pregnancy now.
Individually each of these gets a separate explanation. Together they form a recognisable pattern.
A questionnaire counts symptoms. It cannot measure a hormone or look at an ovary, and several other conditions produce the same answers.
No symptom score can. Diagnosis needs bloods to show raised androgens and to exclude other causes, plus an ultrasound. A high score here means the pattern is worth investigating, nothing more, and a low score does not rule PCOS out.
An underactive thyroid, raised prolactin, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and simple stress-related cycle disruption all produce irregular periods and some of the same skin and hair changes. Treating the wrong one wastes years.
Irregular cycles and acne are normal in the first two to three years after periods begin, so the adult criteria do not apply and PCOS is generally not diagnosed in that window. If your daughter is in that group, this assessment will overstate things.
The pill masks PCOS by imposing a regular bleed. Symptoms often surface only after stopping it, and it can take several months for your own cycle to reappear, so an assessment done immediately after stopping is unreliable in both directions.
If this assessment showed a moderate or strong pattern, the next step is bloods and a scan. Dr. Grishma Ranjangaonkar has over 15 years of experience in gynaecology and reproductive medicine and treats PCOS routinely.
In everyday use in India the two are used interchangeably, and this clinic treats both under one heading. Strictly, PCOD describes ovaries with many small follicles seen on a scan, which is a finding. PCOS is the syndrome: that finding together with hormonal and metabolic features such as irregular ovulation and raised androgens. Plenty of women have polycystic-looking ovaries on ultrasound without having the syndrome.
No, but it can be managed well, and the symptoms respond better than most people expect. Weight reduction of around five per cent often restores ovulation on its own. Beyond that, treatment is targeted at whichever features matter most to you: cycle regulation, skin and hair, insulin resistance, or fertility. It is a condition you manage across life rather than one you fix once.
Yes. PCOS is the most common cause of ovulation-related infertility, but it is also one of the most treatable. Many women conceive after lifestyle changes alone, and ovulation induction with tablets works for a large proportion of the rest. IVF is the exception rather than the rule.
No, and the name is misleading. What appears on the scan is a ring of small immature follicles rather than cysts in the usual sense. Two of the three Rotterdam criteria are enough for a diagnosis, so a woman with irregular ovulation and raised androgens has PCOS whether or not her ovaries look polycystic.
A pelvic ultrasound plus blood tests: thyroid function and prolactin to exclude other causes, total and free testosterone, LH and FSH taken in the early part of the cycle, and a metabolic panel with fasting glucose, insulin or HbA1c, and lipids. The metabolic half is often skipped and it should not be, because it is what predicts long-term risk.
Studies in India report prevalence in roughly the 10 to 20 per cent range among women of reproductive age, which is at or above figures reported in most Western populations. Insulin resistance also tends to appear at a lower body weight in South Asian women, so metabolic screening matters even when weight looks unremarkable.
It will improve it considerably for many women, and around five per cent of body weight is the figure usually quoted for restoring ovulation. It is not a complete answer, and lean women get PCOS too, so weight loss is one part of management rather than the whole of it.
Yes, and this is the part most often left out of the conversation. PCOS raises the long-term risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol and endometrial changes from infrequent periods, and it is strongly associated with anxiety and low mood. Ongoing follow-up matters even when you are not trying to conceive.
