Hi, I'm Dr. Asmat Maad. I'm a reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist, and I'm also co-founder and chief medical officer of Carrot Fertility. I wanted to share some symptoms to look out for when it comes to polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS. If you're not familiar, 5 to 20% of women globally have PCOS, and it is 1 of the leading causes of infertility among women worldwide.

Some symptoms that can be due to PCOS are, for example, hair thinning or hair loss, which is also called androgenic alopecia, irregular periods, this could be due to ovulatory dysfunction or irregular ovulation, access hair growth on the face and or body, which is also called hercetism, persistent or severe acne, enlarged ovaries or ovaries with a high number of follicles which is referred to as polycystic morphology ovaries, obesity, infertility or even discoloration or darkening of the skin and areas such as the neck, underarms, under the breasts, or other folds, which is called acanthosis nigricans. Point being, PCOS presents differently in everyone, and it's important to do a comprehensive workup to confirm whether you truly have PCOS or some other medical condition like, for example, hypothyroidism or something called congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which can sometimes present similarly in some people.