Liu X, et al. – The objective of this study was to assess the impacts of exenatide (EXE) on reproductive and metabolic function in overweight/obese (OW/OB) polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The present study showed that short–term exenatide therapy was linked to significant weight loss and central adiposity reduction, which may further explain the improvements in insulin resistance, inflammatory marker, and menstrual cycle, which may contribute to increasing pregnancy rates in OW/OB women with PCOS.

Methods

• Researchers designed a 24-week open-label prospective, randomized, clinical study.
• This study randomized 176 OW/OB women diagnosed with PCOS to receive either EXE 10 μg BID (n = 88) or metformin (MET) 1000 mg BID (n = 88) for the first 12 weeks.
• Thereafter, they treated all patients with MET alone during the second 12 weeks.
• They detected metabolic parameters at 0 and 12 weeks, and then tracked the rate of pregnancy during the second 12 weeks.

Results

• In context of the findings, compared with MET, subjects who received EXE had significantly decreased weight (4.29±1.29 kg vs. 2.28±0.55 kg, P<0.001) and total fat% (4.67±0.09% vs. 1.11±0.32%, P<0.001), improved the homeostasis model of assessment for insulin resistance (1.30±0.58 vs. 0.59±0.12, P<0.001), and increased the menstrual frequency ratio (0.62±0.12 vs. 0.37±0.01, P<0.001) after the first 12 weeks of intervention.
• The data showed that the rate of natural pregnancy of EXE-treated patients was significantly higher than MET-treated patients (43.60% vs. 18.70%, P<0.05) during the second 12 weeks.