A new evidence‐based guideline for assessment and management of polycystic ovary syndrome

IN REPLY: We concur with the main points made by Rodgers and colleagues. While the recently released guideline on the assessment and management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS),1,2 which was partly funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, has significantly advanced the evidence base in the assessment and management of PCOS, there remains a large research gap. We agree that the current limited PCOS research funding is disproportionate to the significant social, health and economic burden of PCOS on the Australian population and health system.

As a result of the evidence synthesis and the guideline, leading PCOS researchers and consumers identified the following priorities for PCOS research: biological origins, diagnosis accuracy, contemporary PCOS‐related genetics, prevalence across diverse population groups (with a focus on Indigenous people), economic and health impacts, psychological burden, effective translation and implementation approaches, infertility, pregnancy complications, perinatal outcomes, and follow‐up in children with PCOS. In addition, the robust evaluation framework underpinning the PCOS guideline provides implementation data to further guide research priorities.

We endorse calls for increased PCOS research funding to focus on gaps and priorities emerging from the evidence‐based guidelines. The successful international guideline development process has delivered a road map in which best practice research is characterised as consumer‐driven, global, collaborative, multidisciplinary and large scale, with outcomes that will drive equity, focus public policy, build health sector capacity and deliver effective research translation and impacts. It is time for research funding bodies to disincentivise competitive, small scale, monodisciplinary, siloed research, and to enable collaborative, impactful, strategic, prioritised research addressing clear gaps in areas of high disease burden, including PCOS.