PCOS has a new name! Introducing Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS)

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 170 million women around the world. The term PCOS is misleading. Why? Because PCOS/PMOS is not about cysts on ovaries. So, PCOS has a new name! The article unveiling the new name of polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), published in The Lancet, describes a very systematic, multistep, global process to renaming this condition, including clinician and patient input with 22,000 survey responses and including 56 patient organizations and multiple workshops – a process that is novel, setting a new bar for renaming of health conditions.

For the rest of this blog, I’m going to use the new term PMOS instead of the old term PCOS.

Why has PCOS been renamed to PMOS?

First, the term ‘polycystic’ is inaccurate, because cysts on the ovaries are not required to have this diagnosis. This terminology often led to delayed or missed diagnosis for women who have normal ovaries on ultrasound; in fact, about 70% of women with PMOS remain undiagnosed.

As blogged previously, the core underlying issue in PMOS is insulin resistance, and is often seen together with other related metabolic health issues, including obesity, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, MASLD (‘fatty liver’ – as blogged previously), and increased cardiovascular risk. As these are endocrine and metabolic issues, these terms made it into the new name, which I think is great. This terminology also reminds both women and their doctors that screening and treatment for these health issues is super important.

The old term PCOS was also felt to be potentially socially stigmatizing or even harmful in some cultures or world regions, with this fertility-focused term described by some women as conflicting with strict societal expectations of femininity and motherhood.

This renaming process has a 3-year rollout period – let’s all be leaders and make the change starting now!

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