Table 1.

Studies that provide best evidence regarding incidence of CVD and type 2 DM in women with PCOS

	Design of the study	No. of PCOS women	Findings	Refs.
Best evidence for CVD risk	31-yr follow-up study of women diagnosed with PCOS	786	No significant increased risk of death from cardiovascular-related causes	219
	Retrospective cohort study	319	Excess of nonfatal cerebrovascular events	22
	14-yr prospective cohort of female nurses with irregular menses (PCOS not confirmed)	82,439	50% increased risk for nonfatal or fatal CVD compared to age- and BMI-matched women without PCOS	42
	Postmenopausal women with or without premenopausal history of irregular menses	390	More angiographic coronary artery disease (P = 0.04); lower cumulative 5-yr cardiovascular event-free survival (78.9 vs. 88.7%; P = 0.006)	221
	Mothers of women with PCOS		After adjustments for age and race, PCOS was shown to be an independent predictor of cardiovascular events (odds ratio, 5.41; 95% CI, 1.78 to 16.40)	223
Best evidence for DM risk	Prospective study of PCOS women	254	7.5% had diabetes	17
	Multicenter clinical trial	394	6.6%	18