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Polysistic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, for short, affects as many as 5 million people in the

U.S. alone.

But in spite of how common PCOS is, it's also quite poorly understood.

Many people with the condition remain undiagnosed as they grapple with irregular periods, changes

in their hair growth and body composition, acne, and even infertility.

If and when they do manage to get a diagnosis, they're often told to focus on lifestyle changes like weight loss to mitigate symptoms.

Now some researchers are pushing back against this generalized advice, which they say isn't just unhelpful, but sometimes actively

harmful.

In a recent meta-analysis, researchers showed that people with PCOS have a higher prevalence

of eating disorders than their peers, regardless of their body mass index or BMI, a common

though flawed measurement based on a person's height and weight.

For Scientific American

Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman. I'm joined today by Laura Cooney, a co-author of the recent

study. She's an associate professor in the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility

at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Laura, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much. It's great to be here.

So let's start with something basic. What is PCOS and how has our understanding and definition of it

changed in recent years? Yeah, so PCOS is actually incredibly common. It impacts probably

...