[Study on the facial and body terminal hair growth in women in Guangdong by using modified Ferriman-Gallwey scoring system].

Abstract To study growth of facial and body terminal hair of women in Guangdong province and its relationship with age, menstrual irregularities and polycystic ovary, and determine normative cut-off score of modified Ferriman and Gallwey (mFG). A cross-sectional study was conducted on 2988 women at age of 20-45 years from 16 communities of two urban and two rural regions in Guangdong province from June 2008 to July 2009. Terminal body hair growth was assessed by using the modified Ferriman and Gallwey (mFG) scoring system. The normative cut-off value of mFG were calculated by using the K-means cluster analysis (K=2). Those women were classified into following groups, including 982 women at group of ages of 20- years, 765 women at group of 26- years, 597 women at group of 31- years, 384 women at group of 36- years, 260 women at group of 41-45 years. Due to absence or errors of medical records, some cases were excluded from this study. Based on menses irregularities (MI), polycystic ovaries (PCO), there were 488 cases in MI group, 2413 cases in normal menses group, 568 cases in PCO group, and 2207 cases in non-PCO group finally. The incidences of acne, MI, acanthosis nigricans, and polycystic ovaries were also analyzed in all the hirsute groups. (1) among 2988 women, it was observed 149 women (5%) with mFG≥7,314 women (10.5%) with ≥5,747 women with mFG≥2. (2) Cluster analysis identified an mFG score of 5 as the cut-off value that define abnormal hirsute in the total population and all the sub-groups with/without MI or PCO; (3) Based on age classification, it was found that increased age was associated with decreased trends of the percentile and cut-off value of hirsutism. The value of hirsutism of mFG were 6 in group of 20- years, 5 in group of 26- years, 4 in groups of 31- years, 36- years and 41-45 years. (4) The prevalence of acne, menstrual irregularities and POC were 45.5% (143/314), 73.6% (231/314), 25.8% (81/314) in total population, 25.1% (671/2674), 16.1% (431/2674), 19.8% (529/2674) in normal hair women, which reached statistical difference (P