Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most neglected conditions in medical establishments with a greater impact on marriages. AI has moved into this historical gap to improve the diagnosis of PCOS and restore dignity for women. For social media health worker graduates who think PCOS is a canine friend who sleeps on the couch at night; it’s a hormonal condition in which ovaries produce abnormal amounts of androgens. It could be the reason you miss periods, gain weight, have excess body hair, infertility or those dark patches under your breast. Artificial intelligence continues to benefit women in significant ways. Recently, an AI breakthrough in cancer screening hit the headlines with hopes of containing the worrisome malady.
Let’s put PCOS in a little of its social context…
PCOS can hide in the body of a woman like those STIs that stay for 10-plus years without you noticing. As a result, women have lost their respect due to infertility. Other women have to negotiate their dignity and respect as a result of the unnoticed condition in their bodies -PCOS. In this modern-day era, there could be no better hope for women as AI contributes to the diagnosis that will save marriages and restore dignity.
Women who come from patriarchal communities will understand what it means to be considered infertile and or unable to carry a child in the womb. The torment they go through could soon come to a stop especially those caused by PCOS. The hormonal condition has been around for decades with a continued burden of misdiagnosis as acknowledged by Dr Janet Hall “Given the large burden of under- and misdiagnosed PCOS in the community and its potentially serious outcomes, we wanted to identify the utility of AI/ML in the identification of patients that might be at risk for PCOS.”
The Case of Diana with PCOS
Diana, like many women, wondered what was wrong with her body. She says “I didn’t know what was wrong with my body. I didn’t understand why I had the symptoms I had. Social Media was confusing; friends and family didn’t know either.”
Diana had to put up with several years of misdiagnosis since no one seemed to know the problem with her body. Out of curiosity, she resorted to opening up to fellow women to discuss menses “It turns out that it was affecting other aspects of my health and personal life and just wondered, am I the only one going through this?” Diana Canghizer
It turned out that so many women were going through horrible experiences due to misdiagnosis, misinformation, and miscommunications.
According to the National Institute of Health, women between the ages of 15 and 45 are at risk of PCOS. In as much as it’s one of the most common hormonal disorders, standard tests failed to a greater extent in detecting PCOS. However, AI breakthroughs resulted in a detection range of between 80% and 90%.
“The effectiveness of AI and machine learning in detecting PCOS was even more impressive than we thought” Dr Hall confirmed in her statement. On the other hand, Skand Shekhar pointed out that “Across a range of diagnostic and classification modalities, there was an extremely high performance of AI/ML in detecting PCOS, which is the most important takeaway of our study.”
AI in Detecting PCOS
After an analysis of peer-reviewed studies over the past 25 years, Shekhar had this to say “These data reflect the untapped potential of incorporating AI/ML in electronic health records and other clinical settings to improve the diagnosis and care of women with PCOS.” The breakthrough is a stark reminder that the potential of AI in the medical and other fields is yet to be exhausted.
Besides AI/ML’s ability to improve the diagnosis of PCOS, Artificial Intelligence will provide lasting solutions to the diagnosis overlaps that have made it difficult for doctors to detect the condition leading to improper function of the ovary. With the AI analysis, the next time you’re diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and other reproductive disorders, it could be just the right time to think of PCOS.
