Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Absent from National Surveillance and Present Online: Implications for Mental and Behavioral Health.

Abstract

In the United States there is a need to increase awareness and management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a metabolic, reproductive, and endocrine condition the National Institutes of Health has described as a major public health problem for women. PCOS is a highly prevalent chronic condition that can begin in adolescence and is associated with irregular or no menstrual periods, excessive body hair, acne, infertility, obesity, anxiety and depression, and poor health-related quality of life. This paper consists of two studies that aim to understand PCOS and women’s health in two contexts, the health care system and digital (online) spaces. The first paper examines the demographics and behavioral health care of patients seen for PCOS-related medical visits using national health care data. The findings point to potential disparities in PCOS-related health care access and utilization by age, race, insurance type, and percent poverty greater than 10% in the patient’s zip code. Limited information on behavioral health education and mental health including depression screening, depression diagnosis, and mental health care underscores the need to strengthen national surveillance to further understand behavioral health care services for PCOS. The second paper explores how teen and women’s digital magazines portray adolescents and women with PCOS to understand discourse and ideologies related to health, illness, and gender in these media. The results suggest these magazine articles contain dominant ideologies of beauty and gender and place considerable personal responsibility on women to improve their health through lifestyle changes. Women were also depicted as change agents that used their personal experiences with PCOS to advocate for women’s health. The results can inform the strategic use of digital women’s magazines to promote health and the development of health education programs that train women to be critical consumers of health media. Given that individuals look to the internet and magazines, in addition to health care providers, for health information, these studies highlight how the digital landscape and health care intersect and provide directions for future research to improve women’s health.