Familiarize oneself with the symptoms of PCOS and discuss any concerns with the doctor. See if it would be helpful to arrive for the doctor's appointment in a fasting state, and clarify any other requirements. The purpose of the following list of questions, and this entire FAQ, is to help women have better communication with their doctors, not to substitute for diagnosis, treatment, and frank discussion with one's own physician. This is because no exact cause of PCOS has been established yet. PCOS should be diagnosed based on physical exam, ultrasound of the ovaries, and the results of various blood tests.
Diagnosis is made based on having several of the symptoms listed above.
There is some disagreement in the medical community about the diagnostic criteria to be used. In some cases, an abdominal ultrasound may be needed as well, but this tends not to give as clear a view. Usually ultrasound diagnosis of polycystic ovaries is made if there are at least 8-10 cysts that are less than 10mm in size on each ovary. It is not known how long each individual cyst will last, or what caused the arrested development of the follicle leading to the formation of the cyst in the first place. The polycystic ovary tends to be enlarged to 1.5-3 times the size of a normal ovary and often has an increase in the stromal tissue in the center of the ovary and around the follicles.