Polycystic ovary syndrome signs and symptoms often begin soon after a woman first begins having periods (menarche). In some cases, PCOS develops later during the reproductive years, for instance, in response to substantial weight gain. PCOS has many signs -- things you or your doctor can see or measure -- and symptoms -- things that you notice or feel. All of these can worsen with obesity. Every woman with PCOS may be affected a little differently.

Symptoms and Signs of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in TCM:
(1) Kidney asthenia syndrome
Main symptoms: Delayed menstruation with scanty and light-colored menses, gradual amenorrhea, occasional irregular menstruation, failure to be pregnant long after marriage, dizziness and tinnitus, aching and weak sensation in the loins and knees, dispiritedness, or cold sensation in the body and cold limbs, clear and profuse urine, loose stool, sexual frigidity, or obesity and pilosity, lightcolored tongue with whitish thin fur and deep-thin pulse.

(2) Phlegm-dampness syndrome
Main symptoms: Scanty menorrhea, delayed menstruation or even amenorrhea, failure to be pregnant long after marriage, or leukorrhagia, dizziness and heavy sensation in the head, chest oppression, nausea, lassitude of limbs, or profuse sputum in the throat, loose stool, obesity, pilosity, whitish greasy tongue fur and slippery pulse.

(3) Syndrome of liver depression transforming into fire
Main symptoms: Amenorrhea, or scanty menorrhea, or irregular menstruation, failure to be pregnant long after marriage, muscular building, thick hair, acne on the face, distending pain in the chest, hypochondria and breasts, or lactorrhea, dry mouth with preference for drinking water, constipation, yellowish thin tongue fur and taut and rapid pulse.

(4) Syndrome of qi stagnation and blood stasis
Main symptoms: Delayed menstruation, or scanty and unsmooth menorrhea, unpressable abdominal pain during menstruation acompanied by blood clot, alleviation of abdominal pain after removal of blood clot, or even amenorrhea; occasional scanty menorrhea, sterility after marriage, mental depression, distending fullness in the chest and hypochondria, purplish tongue or with ecchymosis on the edge and tip, deep and taut pulse.