THU650 Prevalence Of Hyperandrogenemia, PCOS And Obesity In Mothers Of Daughters With PCOS
Authors: Cai Jie , Brewer Kelly , Sisk Ryan , Legro Richard S , Dunaif Andrea Elizabeth 
Published: October 2023

Disclosure: J. Cai: None. K. Brewer: None. R. Sisk: None. R.S. Legro: None. A.E. Dunaif: None.

Prenatal exposure to androgens produces phenocopies of PCOS in animal models. In mice, there is evidence for transgenerational prenatal androgen effects. Human studies considered to support the hypothesis that intrauterine actions of androgens play a major role in PCOS pathogenesis come from (1) health registries where PCOS in mothers and daughters was diagnosed by ICD codes and (2) retrospective assessment of mother’s PCOS status in cohorts of affected women. Maternal PCOS status has not been directly assessed. As part of our genetic analyses of PCOS, we have prospectively recruited 678 mothers and 540 fathers of 678 women fulfilling NIH criteria for PCOS with confirmed hyperandrogenism and ovulatory dysfunction (OD). All subjects had fasting blood samples for reproductive hormones measured in central labs. Mothers completed a validated questionnaire for reproductive history. We tested the hypothesis that maternal PCOS accounted for PCOS in her daughter. We also investigated the contribution of maternal compared to paternal obesity to daughters’ obesity. We limited the analysis to mothers age 50 yrs and younger, with FSH &lt;40 mIU/mL; 108 fathers were available from these families. Continuous data are reported as median and data range. Age (yrs): daughters 23 (13-24), mothers 46 (34-50), fathers 48 (37-69). Daughters had significantly higher BMI (kg/m2) (35.3, 18.5-60.0) than mothers (28.9, 18.7-54.1) and fathers (29.6, 18.4-55.5) (both P &lt;0 .0001), while BMI did not differ in mothers and fathers. Hyperandrogenemia (HA), defined as total testosterone &gt;58 ng/dL, biologically available testosterone &gt;15 ng/dL or DHEAS &gt;2683ng/mL, was present in 14.4% (20/139) of mothers, of these, 2.2% (3/139) fulfilled NIH criteria for PCOS, HA+OD. The prevalence of obesity, BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2, (66.2% daughter, 44.8% mother, and 45.7% fathers) was increased in daughters compared to both mothers (p= 0.0004) and fathers (p&lt; 0.0001). Mothers with HA had higher BMI than those without it (P= 0.011). The odds ratio for obesity in daughters was 5.16 (1.97, 13.48) with maternal obesity and 2.29 (0.95, 5.52) with paternal obesity. Only ∼14% of reproductive-age mothers had HA, which we have shown in an underlying reproductive phenotype in PCOS families (Legro. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 1998); ∼ 2% of mothers fulfilled NIH criteria for PCOS. Although the PCOS reproductive phenotype ameliorates with age, it is clear that many affected daughters did not have a mother with hormonal features of PCOS. These findings do not support the hypothesis that prenatal androgen exposure is a final common path to PCOS in humans. The prevalence of obesity was higher in daughters than in parents and in HA mothers compared mothers without HA suggesting that obesity was associated with features of PCOS. Maternal obesity conferred greater risk for obesity in daughters than paternal obesity.

Presentation: Thursday, June 15, 2023