Title: Sexuality and Psychological Well-being in Different Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Phenotypes Compared with Healthy Controls: A Cross-sectional Study
Version: 3 Date: 26 Apr 2022
Reviewer's report:
COMMENTS TO THE AUTHOR (2)
BMC Women's Health
Ref: Submission ID 2fa6d63d-45f3-4dda-8429-d1ef44782f36
Sexuality and Psychological Well-being in Different Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Phenotypes
Compared with Healthy Controls: A Cross-sectional Study
Comments to the Author
As I said earlier, this paper treats an interesting and important question, since the usual research
on PCOS is on the physiologic health impact. The psychological impact is rarely discussed but as
important. I made some suggestions that may or may not be accepted by the authors. However,
I have some aspects that I would like them to clarify. For some previous questions, I did not
get substantial answers.
Comments
Some acronyms that appear in the text are described only in the tables. Please describe them in
the text (This was said earlier) MCS ???
Review the other acronyms, some are not parsed in the first citation, others are described more
than once.
Why are the tables not in the text? Are they supplemental material? If yes, does this need to be
described in the text?
Review the tables. some results are shown as significant with the * sign and others are not,
and NS for not significant (This is not necessary). Results are presented as mean and standard
deviation, other as percentile. This needs to be described in the table.
In table 7 - the * sign is in the wrong variable. FSFI is total score?
In the introduction, the hypotheses can be described in a short paragraph and not in topics 1 and 2
In introduction "... PCOS is characterized by large ovaries, menstrual irregularities, clinical and
biochemical hyperandrogenism.
Distribution of PCOS phenotype is variable and dependent on how the population was
identified" (needs citation).
- The authors cite the percentiles of the phenotypes at induction, but describe the phenotypes
in the methodology. The description of the phenotypes (what are they?) must come before the
citation of the percentiles already found in the literature, with their proper citation.
"Lizneva et al. (3) carried out a meta-analysis study to detect PCOS phenotype prevalence (95%
CI) in clinical versus unselected populations: The results were as follows: phenotype A: 50%
(45%-54%) versus 19% (13%-27%), phenotype B: 13% (11%-17%) versus 25% (15%-37%).
Phenotype C: 14% (12%-16%) versus 34% (25 %-46%), phenotype D: 17% (13%-22%) versus
19% (14%-25%).
The authors used the fertility and infertility conditions (Table 7), so the percentiles of infertile
(85%) / fertile women could be cited in the text, as well as obese women (60%).
The possible public health impacts of this finding could be cited in the text. Since PCOS is
multifactorial and impacts women's lives in its various spheres
Page 11  - (8.46+3.78) or ±
Page 16 – wll or well
I have initially suggested some recent articles to embed the article. Key literature, such as:
international evidence-based guideline for the assessment and management of PCOS (2018) was
not considered. Given the important contribution to the field this has made I think the authors
should consider this.
Other literatures - doi: 10.22074/ijfs.2021.6206 (2021) / doi: 10.1007/s43032-021-00546-x
(2021) / doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.05.006 (2019)
The section discussion could be better developed