The effects of drospirenone-ethinyl estradiol and drospirenone-ethinyl estradiol + metformin on ovarian ultrasonographic markers, body fat mass index, leptin, and ghrelin

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Ghrelin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is considered as the most common endocrinopathy among women of reproductive age.

Oral contraceptives (OCs) and metformin are one of the main drug groups in the long-term treatment of PCOS.

This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of drospirenone-ethinyl estradiol and drospirenone-ethinyl estradiol + metformin on ultrasonographic markers, body fat mass (BFM) index, leptin-ghrelin.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 42 patients taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, young adults and adults, women only.

This was a prospective clinical study conducted at Kocaeli University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology on 42 PCOS patients.

Patients were randomly allocated into two groups [Group I (n = 22): drospirenone-ethinyl estradiol (DEE); Group II (n = 20): drospirenone-ethinyl estradiol + metformin (M)] according to Body Mass Index (BMI) findings.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Ghrelin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Patients were evaluated in terms of leptin-ghrelin, ultrasound, and body fat distribution before and 6 months after therapy.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Abdominal Fat, Adiposity, Androstenes, Body Mass Index, Ethinyl Estradiol, Ghrelin and Leptin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Ghrelin in 42 patients.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2013 (Archives of gynecology and obstetrics), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the Ghrelin compound page, all human trials.