Polycystic ovaries were first recognized at the beginning of the last century (Ashton, 1906), it was first brought to the attention of medical profession in 1935 by Stein and Leventhal who reported a series of seven patients with bilateral polycystic ovaries and a thickened ovarian cortex (seen at laparotomy) and the clinical features of amenorrhea, hirsutism and infertility (Stein and Leventhal, 1935).The definition of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) varies markedly among investigators, some use clinical criteria that may include anovulation, obesity, hirsutism, insulin resistance and sonographic visualization of polycystic ovaries (El-Tabbakh et al., 1986), while others use laboratory criteria that may include elevated serum LH levels, elevated circulating androgens and increased LH:FSH ratio (Devane et al., 1975 and Yen, 1980).The aim of this work is to evaluate the recent trends in diagnosis and treatment of patients with PCOS; to assess their efficacy and potential complications through conducting a systemic overview and critical analysis of the body of data in the literature.