Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a common health problem in women. It affects hormones and can cause irregular or missing periods, many cysts in the ovaries, and higher levels of male hormones called androgens. A new study by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay shows that PCOS can also affect how well women pay attention and process information.
The study looked at two groups of women — 101 women with PCOS and 72 women without it. Before testing, the researchers checked their hormone levels. Then, they asked the women to do different attention tasks. These tasks measured how fast and accurately the women could focus on important things and ignore distractions.
The results showed women with PCOS were slower and made more mistakes. “Women with PCOS showed over a 50 per cent slower response and made about 10 per cent more errors than the healthy ones in the focused attention test,” the researchers said. In another test where attention was divided between tasks, PCOS women were about 20 per cent slower and made 3 per cent more errors.
Prof. Azizuddin Khan, who led the study, said, “The cognitive experiments are specifically designed to capture the subtle millisecond-level differences in how individuals respond to critical stimuli. These minute delays reveal significant impairments in attention, which may impact our real-life functioning.” He added, “In the specific context of focused attention, it is not just about concentrating on the task at hand to respond at the right time but also inhibiting irrelevant distractors.”
Why does PCOS affect attention?
The researchers explained that hormonal imbalances in PCOS can lower alertness and slow reaction time. Women with PCOS also had insulin resistance, a condition where the body does not use insulin well. Insulin resistance can cause poor glucose metabolism, which affects brain cell activity and leads to slower attention.
Besides physical problems, mental tiredness caused by PCOS, such as anxiety and frustration, makes it harder to divide attention between tasks. The study said, “The finding highlights that decreased accuracy in divided attention tasks may influence working memory, which hinders holding the information temporarily.” This means PCOS can make daily tasks like remembering directions while driving or recalling a phone number more difficult.
This research shows PCOS not only affects the body but also the brain’s ability to focus and process information. Understanding this can help doctors support women with PCOS better in managing both physical and mental health.
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