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PCOS Is a Strongly Inherited Hormone-and-Insulin Condition – Fertility Plus

Fertility Plus/LinkedIn

Jun 27, 2026, 16:03

PCOS Is a Strongly Inherited Hormone-and-Insulin Condition – Fertility Plus

Fertility Plus shared a post on LinkedIn:

“I keep seeing this one shared as if it were settled: PCOS is just what happens when you put on weight. Let us go through it, because it is doing real harm.

Here is where it comes from. Weight and PCOS often appear together, so people reverse the arrow and assume the weight made the syndrome. It feels obvious. It is also backwards.

No one: The review catalogues 241 gene variations associated with PCOS, sitting in the genes that make hormones and handle insulin. You do not inherit 241 variants because of a diet. The predisposition is written in before any weight is gained.

Number two: The weight gene FTO, variant rs9939609, is itself one of the PCOS-linked genes. So where weight is involved, it is often the same underlying genetics expressing through appetite and metabolism, not an independent cause arriving from outside.

Number 3 three: If weight were the root, weight loss would cure it. It does not. Losing 5 to 10% of body weight measurably improves symptoms, real and worth doing, but it manages an inherited condition rather than erasing one. And plenty of slim women have PCOS too, which a pure weight theory simply cannot explain.

So the accurate version, clear enough to repeat and to share: PCOS is a strongly inherited hormone-and-insulin condition. Weight can amplify it and is genuinely worth addressing, but it did not create it, and it is not a measure of your willpower.

Share that one instead! At Fertility Plus, we read the evidence before every treatment decision, and your care is with the same consultant from start to finish. Call us on 0800 022 6038 or visit fertilityplus.org.uk.

Ajmal et al., Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol X, 2019.”

Proceed to the video attached to the post.

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