Research

Hormonal

GLP-1 receptor agonists (liraglutide and exenatide) produce significant weight loss and BMI reduction in women with PCOS, alongside improvements in metabolic and cardiovascular risk markers.

For women with PCOS and obesity, GLP-1 agonists like liraglutide and exenatide are effective for weight loss and improving metabolic health. Treatment involves starting at a low dose to manage side effects like nausea, then titrating up to the therapeutic dose (1.8mg for Liraglutide, 10mcg BID for Exenatide) over several weeks. This should be combined with lifestyle changes.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
The included studies uniformly reported reductions in weight and body mass index (BMI) among patients who were prescribed GLP-1 RAs, specifically liraglutide or exenatide. Additionally, evidence pointed towards improvements in anthropometric parameters (including total body weight, BMI, reduction in waist circumference, and total fat percentage), glucose homeostasis, cardiovascular inflammatory markers...
Melissa Frangie Machado et al. · Cureus · 2024

Why this rating

Based on a scoping review of 8 studies (5 RCTs, 3 quasi-experimental) with mixed risk of bias.

Source

Clinical Effects of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Agonist Use for Weight Loss in Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Scoping Review

Melissa Frangie Machado et al. · Cureus · 2024

DOI 10.7759/cureus.66691

narrative_reviewCited 6×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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