Incretin-Based Anti-obesity Medications in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: The Evidence Map

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common, heterogeneous condition that is tightly linked to obesity, visceral adiposity and insulin resistance. Lifestyle intervention and off-label use of metformin provide only modest and unsustained weight loss, insufficient to reverse obesity-driven pathophysiology in most women with PCOS and obesity. Incretin-based anti-obesity medications, including glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) and dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide/glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (dual GIP/GLP-1RAs), offer a biologically plausible way to target adipose dysfunction, hyperinsulinemia and chronic inflammation that drive PCOS in a large subset of patients. In this narrative, product-segmented review, we map the evidence for liraglutide, semaglutide and tirzepatide in PCOS across mechanistic, clinical, and safety domains, and highlight key evidence gaps that limit current practice. Liraglutide has the densest PCOS-specific evidence, demonstrating reproducible weight loss across small and heterogeneous cohorts, reductions in visceral adiposity and hepatic fat, improved glycemia and inflammatory markers, and early signals for androgen and fertility benefits in selected phenotypes. Semaglutide data remain sparse but conceptually rich, demonstrating weight-loss efficacy and mechanistic insights, alongside preliminary signals of increased likelihood of natural conception. Tirzepatide currently has no PCOS-specific evidence and cannot be recommended beyond extrapolation from obesity and diabetes trials. Across all agents, reproductive outcomes, periconceptional and pregnancy safety, adolescent use, long-term cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic trajectories, obstructive sleep apnea, musculoskeletal health and phenotype-stratified response remain major evidence gaps. We propose a multidimensional, metabolic high-risk PCOS phenotype as the most rational current target for incretin therapy, while emphasizing that well-designed, PCOS-specific trials are essential before these drugs can be viewed as PCOS-modifying therapies rather than powerful, but still adjunctive, weight-loss agents.