Simvastatin improves some aspects of PCOS.(News)

MONTREAL -- The addition of simvastatin to an oral contraceptive regimen significantly reduces hirsutism and elevated levels of total testosterone in women with polycystic ovary syndrome, according to a study conducted by Antoni J. Duleba, M.D., of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., and associates.

"This is the first report that simvastatin improves a clinical end point of treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome/hirsutism," Dr. Duleba, the lead investigator, said in an interview.

The data were presented by another investigator in the study, Beata Banaszewska, M.D., at the conjoint annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society.

Oral contraceptive pills "do reduce testosterone levels, but in this crossover study, we can appreciate that statins have a greater power to this effect," Dr. Banaszewska, of Poznan University of Medical Sciences in Poland, said at the meeting.

PCOS affects 5%-10% of women of childbearing age, according to Dr. Duleba. Estimates of the cost of evaluation and care in the United States annually are about $4 billion. "We still don't have satisfactory medical treatments for PCOS; symptomatic treatments only partly improve the situation, and long term, these patients are at increased risk of cardiovascular problems," he said.

The study randomized 48 PCOS patients (mean age 24 years) into two treatment groups.

One group received oral contraceptive pills (OCP) alone (20-mcg ethinyl estradiol and 150-mcg desogestrel) for 12 weeks, after which 20-mg simvastatin was added to their regimen daily for 12 more weeks.