Research
Hormonal
Lifestyle interventions may improve the Free Androgen Index (FAI) in women with PCOS, but evidence quality is low.
Lifestyle changes may help lower male hormone levels (FAI) in women with PCOS. However, the evidence is not strong enough to be certain, so this should be viewed as a potential benefit rather than a guaranteed outcome.
LimitedQualifiesLOW confidence
Lifestyle intervention may improve a secondary (endocrine) reproductive outcome, the free androgen index (FAI) (MD -1.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.96 to -0.26, 6 RCTs, N = 204, I2 = 71%, low-quality evidence).
Why this rating
Low-quality evidence due to high heterogeneity (I2=71%) and risk of bias.
Source
Lifestyle changes in women with polycystic ovary syndrome
Siew S Lim et al. · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2019
DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd007506.pub4
Meta-analysis · 15 studiesCited 381×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Lifestyle interventions (diet, exercise, or behavioral) reduce body weight and BMI in women with PCOS, but evidence for improving glucose tolerance is uncertain.Limited
- There is no evidence that lifestyle interventions improve live birth, miscarriage rates, or menstrual regularity in women with PCOS.Weak
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