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One group of women in the United States is at a much higher risk of heart disease, a new nationwide study has suggested.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States, with one person dying every 34 seconds from cardiovascular disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and smoking are known key risk factors for heart disease, along with diabetes, obesity and excessive alcohol use.
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
However, a new study has pointed to another major risk factor: women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, previously known as polycystic ovary syndrome, have a massive fourfold higher risk of heart disease than women without the syndrome.
Researchers and doctors Snigdha Alur-Gupta and Anuja Dokras explained to Newsweek: “Women with PMOS have an increased risk of multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors such as diabetes; however prior evidence is mixed as to whether these risk factors then translate into an increased risk for atherosclerotic CVD events (for example, myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke) in this population as well.
“In our study, which is the largest nationwide study of its kind, we found that women with PMOS have significantly higher hazard (aHR 4.40) for composite ASCVD events compared to women without PMOS.
“The hazard is the probability that the adverse event will occur in a defined time interval (so a 4.4 times higher probability of an ASCVD event).”
More Patient Awareness Needed
Expert Dr Roy Jogiya, Chief Medical Advisor to Heart Research UK, told Newsweek that it has been “long known that women with PMOS are more likely to have cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol levels.”
However, this new large-scale study “strengthens the evidence that their increased risk of heart disease may extend beyond these traditional risk factors, highlighting the importance of early cardiovascular risk assessment and prevention.”
PCOS or PMOS, caused by the ovaries creating excess hormones, leads to irregular periods, excess hair growth, acne, and can make it much more difficult to get pregnant. According to Cleveland Clinic, up to 15 percent of women of reproductive age have PMOS.
A new study published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health collected health insurance data for more than 413,000 PMOS patients between the ages of 18 and 50, from the years 2000 to 2022. It matched these patients to more than 2,000,000 women without PMOS.
The study co-authors told Newsweek: “Our findings highlight the need for healthcare provider and patient education and awareness to improve early screening, counseling and long-term surveillance in this population. We showed through our mediation analyses that the higher hazards are not solely attributable to CVD risk factors, therefore this association should be discussed even in patients without traditional risk factors such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.”
Biological Factors
Their research found that the fourfold risk of heart disease compared to women without PMOS remained even after accounting for other risk factors such as obesity and diabetes.
This, the researchers say, suggests that other biological factors related to PMOS may contribute to the risk of heart disease.
They added that this emphasises the need for healthcare provider education, and that PMOS patients should be made aware of the cardiovascular disease risk, in order to improve the implementation of early preventive interventions.
Reference
Snigdha Alur-Gupta et al, Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk in polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome: a nationwide, US, claims-based, retrospective, longitudinal, cohort study, The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health (2026). DOI: 10.1016/s3050-5038(26)00090-7
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.
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