Why acne, chin hair, and irregular cycles are more than an ovary problem

A condition named for the ovaries turns out to run through the muscle, the liver, and the pancreas. Insulin is the signal connecting them, and different organs hear it differently. Oluyemisi Famuyiwa, reproductive endocrinologist and founder of the Montgomery Fertility Center, returns to walk through it. This episode is based on her article "How insulin drives polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome," published on KevinMD. You will hear why the pancreas makes more insulin when muscle stops responding, and why the ovary and the liver are still listening when it does. You will hear what that does to androgen levels, and why acne, chin hair, and stubborn weight show up before irregular cycles. You will hear why body weight is a poor guide to who has PCOS, since lean patients carry the same elevated androgens and irregular cycles. And you will hear which tests she orders and why she works this across internal medicine and endocrinology. Press play for the reframe she leaves clinicians with: this is more than the ovary and more than insulin.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed.

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com.

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast