Kumarendran B, O'Reilly MW, Subramanian A, et al. - In women with PCOS, combined oral contraceptive pills (COCPs) are administered both for cycle regulation and to lower the biologically active androgen fraction. Researchers herein examined the correlation of COCP use in PCOS with risk of dysglycemia (prediabetes and type 2 diabetes) using a large U.K. primary care database (The Health Improvement Network [THIN]; 3.7 million patients from 787 practices).

• A retrospective population-based cohort study investigating dysglycemia risk (64,051 women with PCOS and 123,545 matched control subjects), as well as a nested pharmacoepidemiological case-control study examining COCP use in relation to dysglycemia risk (2,407 women with PCOS with [case subjects] and without [control subjects] a diagnosis of dysglycemia during follow-up) were conducted.

• The retrospective nature and the use of routinely obtained electronic general practice record data were the limitations of this study, due to which exclusion of the impact of prescription-by-indication bias could not be done.

• Overall risk of dysglycemia appeared lower among women with PCOS exposed to COCPs across all BMI subgroups.