A comparative study of cutaneous manifestations of hyperandrogenism in obese and non-obese Taiwanese women

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of obesity on cutaneous manifestations of clinical hyperandrogenism. Methods: A total of 627 Taiwanese women of reproductive age were included. Results: Women with acne had a greater incidence of PCOS, hyperandrogenemia and hirsutism, and had higher serum total testosterone than women without acne. Obese women, even with significantly higher serum total testosterone levels, had lower incidence of acne than non-obese women, and this was found uniformly across the hyperandrogenemia and the non-hyperandrogenemia groups. Although BMI had a significantly positive correlation with serum total testosterone in the studied women, obese women presented less acne than the non-obese subjects. Conclusions: Obese women, regardless of having higher serum testosterone levels, had a lower incidence of acne than non-obese women; however, the factuality was not found in hirsutism.