Rasha konane Afthab¹, Esraa Bashir Malik¹, Mohammad Waqas¹
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal metabolic syndrome that is increasingly affecting women in the current generation. Emerging as a significant health concern, PCOS can disrupt various aspects of women’s bodily functions, leading to issues such as menstrual irregularities, pregnancy concerns, acne, and hirsutism, among others. Treatment options for PCOS include Metformin and the more recently introduced Myo-inositol. This article aims to compare the efficacy of both drugs, primarily focusing on menstrual cycle regularity and secondarily on pregnancy rates, symptom improvement, hormonal level enhancement, and adverse effects.
A systemic search of articles from PubMed,
ResearchGate, and Google Scholar was conducted, resulting
in a comprehensive selection of studies published from 2016
onwards. This literature review provides a synthesized
overview of existing research to compare the effectiveness of
Metformin and Myo-inositol in managing PCOS.
The study reveals that Metformin exhibits a slightly
higher improvement rate in menstrual cycle regularity.
Conversely, Myo-inositol demonstrates a modestly higher
rate of symptomatic improvement, encompassing factors
such as cyst morphology, hirsutism, mean weight reduction,
and enhancement of hormone levels, coupled with gradual
menstrual regularity. Importantly, Myo-inositol shows a
comparatively lower incidence of adverse effects.
In conclusion, while Metformin displays a slight advantage in improving
menstrual cycle regularity, Myo-inositol proves to be more effective in overall symptom
management and hormonal improvement with a decreased likelihood of adverse effects.
This study provides evidence-based insights to assist physicians in making informed
decisions tailored to the needs of patients, considering their symptoms, the nature of PCOS,
and individual physiological responses to drugs.
