Can oral contraceptives improve Taste function in women with PCOS?

A new study has revealed that taste perception is impaired in patients with Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and that short-term oral contraceptive (OC) usage has no effect on taste functioning in the disease.

This study was conducted by Sila Cetik and team and the findings of this study were published in Journal of Appetite.

PCOS is the most prevalent endocrine illness in women of reproductive age, and it is connected with eating disorders and disordered eating. There is no evidence on taste function in women with PCOS. The purpose of this study was to compare taste function and eating behavior in PCOS patients to healthy women, and to look into the potential influence of OC use on those.

For this study Forty-four PCOS patients and 36 age and BMI-matched healthy controls were included in the study. Taste strips (sweet, sour, salty, bitter) and the Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait (FCQ-T), Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ), and Three Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18 (TFEQ-R18) were used to measure gustatory function. All measures were redone in patients three months after getting an OC and general lifestyle counseling.

The key findings of this study are as follows:

1. The PCOS group exhibited lower total taste strip test (TST) scores at baseline than the controls (11.7 2.2 vs. 13.1 1.4; p = 0.001).

2. Subgroup analysis revealed that the PCOS group had lower sour and salty taste scores (2.4 0.9 vs. 2.9 0.7; p = 0.004; and 2.6 1 vs. 3.1 0.7; p = 0.01 respectively).

3. Sweet and bitter taste ratings were comparable. In terms of eating habits, no differences were discovered.

4. According to linear regression analysis, hyperandrogenism was a significant predictor of overall TST score (R2 = 0.22, p 0.001).

5. A higher free androgen index (FAI) was linked to a lower overall TST score (p = 0.01).

6. Total TST, TFEQ-R18, and NEQ scores were unchanged following treatment in the PCOS group, however FCQ-T scores decreased significantly (p = 0.02), owing mostly to a decrease in the lack of control subscale (p = 0.01).

The Author said in conclusion, "according to the findings of this study, androgen excess explains only 22% of the variation in taste perception, whereas treatment of hyperandrogenism with oral contraceptives did not result in an improvement in taste detection thresholds, implying that unmeasured factors may be involved in PCOS taste dysfunction. More research is needed to determine the probable pathways of taste impairment in PCOS".

Reference:

Cetik, S., Acikgoz, A., & Yildiz, B. O. (2022). Investigation of taste function and eating behavior in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. In Appetite (Vol. 168, p. 105776). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105776