OBJECTIVETo explore the Chinese medicine syndrome type distribution in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and its relationship with sexual hormones.

METHODSChinese medicine syndrome types of 212 PCOS patients were differentiated and sorted by adopting fuzzy mean C clustering method, and their relationship with the indices of sexual hormones detected on the 3rd to 5th day of menstrual cycle was analyzed, with the values got from 20 healthy women for controls.

RESULTSIntermingling syndromes were commonly seen in PCOS patients. Shen-deficiency syndrome (presented in 64 patients) and Gan-qi stagnancy syndrome (61 patients) were the dominance, accounting for 30.2% and 28.8% respectively, significantly higher than that of other syndromes (P < 0.05), which were Pi-deficiency syndrome (41 patients, 19.3%), phlegm-dampness syndrome (33 patients, 15.6%) and blood stasis syndrome (13 patients, 6.1%). Levels of estradiol (E2), testosterone (T), luteinzing hormone (LH), dehydroiso-androsterone (DHEA-S) and prolactin (PRL) were higher, while the level of sexual hormone binding protein (SHBG) was lower in PCOS patients than those in control, follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) level in patients of Shen-deficiency syndrome and phlegm-dampness syndrome was high than that in control (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01). However, no significant differences were found in comparing the various sexual endocrinal indices between patients with different syndrome types (P > 0.05). Besides, the level of PRL was positively correlated with LH and E2 levels in patients.

CONCLUSIONChinese medicine syndromes presented in patients with PCOS are mostly intermingling, Shen-deficiency and Gan-stagnancy are the basic syndromes, and there is some correlation between syndrome type and sexual hormone levels.