Discussion
hirsutism, oligomenorrhea, PCOS, amenorrhea
INSULIN RESISTANCE, OLIGOMENORRHEA, HIRSUTISM
According to the study results, administrating curcumin only led to a decrease in FBS levels and did not significantly affect other metabolic indices (triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL-C, HDL-C, insulin, testosterone and SHBG). Regarding the amenorrhea and oligomenorrhea frequency, the numbers in the curcumin group were significantly lower than in the placebo group but there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of length of menstruation. Also, curcumin had no significant positive effect on hirsutism in women with PCOS.In the present study, administrating curcumin led to a decrease in FBS, FBI and HOMA-IR in the curcumin group. Our results were partly consistent with those of previous studies; in a randomized clinical trial, 60 individuals with PCOS were randomly divided into a curcumin and placebo groups and received 500 mg of curcumin or placebo tablets for 12 weeks. Generally administrating curcumin for 12 weeks to women with PCOS had positive effects on body weight, controlling the blood sugar, serum lipids (except triglycerides), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL-cholesterol) levels, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PAR-g) and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene expression [In a systematic review, the effect of curcumin on glycemic control and lipid profile was examined. Based on the result of the reviewed studies, curcumin improved fasting glucose levels, insulin, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in a significant way. Moreover, high-density lipoprotein and cholesterol levels were significantly improved. But it did not have any significant effect on improving low-density lipoprotein and triglyceride levels [Curcumin decreases blood sugar through different mechanisms such as increasing glucose and glycolysis uptake and glycogen synthesis in skeletal muscles or decreasing gluconeogenesis in the liver [Probably, the anti-inflammatory property of curcumin is also effective in regulating glucose and lipid metabolism. As pro-inflammatory cytokines is higher in patients with PCOS [Also, it seems that curcumin affects glucose metabolism by causing changes in enzyme activity associated with glucose; curcumin increases hepatic glucokinase activity while significantly decreasing glucose 6-phosphate and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activities. Curcumin stimulates the release of glucagon-like peptide-1 [Following all principles of a clinical trial such as random allocation, hiding allocation, and blinding were among the strengths of this study. No loss of samples was another strength of this study. The small sample size was one of the limitations of this study and having a bigger sample size is recommended for further studies. Also, the study power was lower than 80% for detecting of significant difference between groups for testosterone level outcome.