Oxidative stress and anti-oxidant defense system in Iranian women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Background: polycystic ovary syndrome (pcos) is a common disorder of infertility which affects more than 100 million women. it is characterized by chronic anovulation, hyper androgenism and obesity. pcos is also associated with oxidative stress changes.objective: here, we aimed to investigate the level of antioxidants and oxidative stress in iranian women with pcos as a predictive factor for cardiovascular disease for the first time in iran. materials and methods: in this cross sectional study 30 women with pcos and 30 healthy women were included. c-reactive protein, serum insulin, advanced oxidation protein products, and level of total antioxidants status were measured from blood samples.results: the levels of serum insulin, c-reactive protein, advanced oxidation protein productswere significantly increased in women with pcos compared with healthy women but there was a decrease in level of total antioxidants status in pcos women.conclusion: these changes show that oxidative stress contributes to pcos and the decrease of antioxidants leads to increase of oxidation products contributing to pcos.