Galveston County Daily News, June 15, 2007 GALVESTON - A discovery by gynecology researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch may pave the way for new treatments and therapies for a leading cause of female infertility. The team has found that the amount of one particular enzyme is elevated in sufferers of polycystic ovary syndrome, which affects as many as 15 percent of women of childbearing age. First diagnosed in 1935 as Stein-Leventhal syndrome, the cause of the complicated syndrome is still unknown, and its numbers are rising because of the obesity epidemic. The syndrome affects women of all races and nationalities and is defined as having two of the following symptoms - an irregular period with no ovulation, increased hair growth or increased blood testosterone, or polycystic ovaries identified with ultrasound. Dr. Ayman Al-Hendy, the senior investigator and medical branch associate professor of gynecology, said: "We have identified an enzyme, catechol-O-methyl transferase, or COMT, that is elevated in the ovaries of PCOS patients."