PCOS Doesn't Just Affect Body, It Can Impair Cognitive Ability Too: IIT-B Study

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome afflicts the health of about 1 in 5 women in India, according to recent studies. It disrupts hormonal balance, causes menstrual irregularities, and increases the risk of metabolic health issues. Beyond physiological impairments, scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, recently found that PCOS also affects cognitive ability. Their study, 'The impact of polycystic ovary syndrome on attention: an empirical investigation’, found that the syndrome can impact women's focused and undivided attention.

PCOS and the mind

IIT-B researchers found that PCOS decreased the speed of response in affected women by about 56% and accuracy by about 10%. Similarly, they performed about 20% slowly, with 3% extra errors in divided attention tasks. Among the two types of attention, PCOS women performed poorer in focused attention.

For this research, scientists recruited two groups of participants, 101 women with PCOS and 72 healthy women, who were asked to carry out the attention tasks. Their hormonal levels were assessed before the study. The task-based tests showed that women with PCOS are slower to react and more easily distracted than others.

Researchers said that attention the precursor for all vital cognitive processing, including receiving, understanding, and making sense of the information. It is also a complex process that involves focusing on relevant information and filtering out irrelevant stimuli (focused attention). Meanwhile, divided attention helps us handle and respond to multiple tasks simultaneously.

“Despite the variability in PCOS symptoms and their severity, the impairments in the core cognitive abilities of attention and processing speed seem to be prevalent across women,” Azizuddin Khan, professor of psychophysiology who led the research, said in the journal BioPsychosocial Medicine. The study highlighted that decreased accuracy in divided attention tasks may influence working memory, which hinders holding the information temporarily. 

Why this happens

IIT-B underlined why PCOS affects women's cognitive ability. Researchers stated that along with elevated androgen levels, the participants with PCOS had insulin resistance that is linked to attention. Insulin resistance causes poor glucose metabolism and affects neuron (brain cell) activity, leading to poor performance in focused attention tasks.

Previous studies have shown that PCOS is also a cause behind mental fatigue, anxiety and frustration, making divided attention more challenging. Due to this, daily activities such as focusing while driving or remembering phone numbers can be more challenging, researchers said. The findings emphasise PCOS as a complex medical condition that not only affects physical but also cognitive health, Khan said.