PCOS to PMOS: What to Know About the Name Change
Key takeaways
- Understand why PCOS is now PMOS. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is now called polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) to highlight its broader impact on your whole-body health, beyond reproductive health.
- Seek early treatment to help improve your health. Knowing how PMOS affects your hormonal and metabolic health can help you manage the condition earlier and help reduce long-term health risks, like diabetes, obesity, heart conditions, and more.
- Focus on holistic care. Talk to your health care providers about addressing not just hormonal issues but also metabolic, mental health, and sleep concerns related to PMOS.
- Follow your treatment plan. Work with your care team on a treatment plan tailored to your needs. They can help you explore lifestyle changes, review medication options, and connect you to specialists to better manage PMOS.
- Learn about ongoing PMOS research. Mass General Brigham researchers explore new ways to manage PMOS through multidisciplinary care and improve overall health outcomes.
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is now polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). The new name helps show how this common hormonal condition affects the entire body—not just the ovaries.
“Some of the limitations of the old name were that it overly focused on the ovary and added a lot of confusion,” says Shruthi Mahalingaiah, MD, a Mass General Brigham reproductive endocrinologist and gynecologist. “The name change really broadens this to the whole-body condition that it is.”
Dr. Mahalingaiah cares for patients in the Infertility and Reproductive Surgery Program at Mass General Brigham and leads research on reproductive health, including PMOS. She recently co-wrote a paper in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology that describes the new name for PCOS and how providers have an opportunity to help improve diagnosis and treatment.
In this article, she explains how the recent name change for PCOS should help improve care and reduce long-term health risks in people with this condition.
Why is PCOS now called PMOS?
Many international patient and professional organizations took part in deciding on a new name for PCOS.
The old name, PCOS, simplified the condition and caused confusion for both providers and patients. This contributed to providers missing the condition in some patients and poor treatment in others.
“From my understanding, clinicians and researchers have been interested in renaming the condition for decades,” says Dr. Mahalingaiah. They wanted a new name that recognized how the condition affects multiple systems in the body, to help raise awareness and improve treatment.
PCOS meaning and limitations
PCOS/PMOS is a health condition that affects women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB). It happens when your hormones are imbalanced, which can lead to different symptoms like:
- Irregular periods
- Extra hair growth on the face or body
- Acne or oily skin
- Infertility
The name for polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, created too much focus on the ovaries and cysts. You don’t need to have ovarian cysts to have the condition. It goes beyond reproductive health and affects other systems in the body.
What does PMOS mean?
PMOS stands for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome. Each word of the new name for PCOS highlights an important part of the condition and how it affects the body:
- Polyendocrine shows the effect on hormones like androgen and insulin. People with PMOS have high androgen levels, which can cause irregular periods, extra hair growth, and infertility. They may also develop insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes.
- Metabolic points to how the condition also affects your metabolism, which can cause weight gain and make it harder to lose weight. This can lead to long-term health risks, like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and more.
- Ovarian keeps the part of the original name related to reproductive health. PMOS often disrupts your period regularity and can make it harder to get pregnant.
Benefits of PMOS vs. PCOS
Dr. Mahalingaiah, along with many other providers and researchers, believes the name change will help improve diagnosis, treatment, and research for PMOS.
In her recent American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology paper, she and the authors explain what doctors need to know about the new name. The guidelines for diagnosing and treating PMOS haven’t changed, but obstetrician-gynecologists (OB/GYNs) can:
- Diagnose the condition earlier
- Recognize long-term health risks of the condition
- Coordinate care with other specialists
- Talk with patients about how to manage symptoms and reduce related health risks throughout their life, from adolescence through menopause and beyond
One of the positives with this name change is that we can come together and create this coordinated, integrated care and risk-reduce over the lifespan.
Shruthi Mahalingaiah, MD
- Reproductive Endocrinologist and Gynecologist, Mass General Brigham
Earlier diagnosis benefits PMOS and fertility
Some patients don’t know they have PMOS until they have trouble getting pregnant or have an unintended pregnancy. Then the stress of making different lifestyle changes for PMOS quickly can be overwhelming.
If providers diagnose PMOS earlier, they can help patients get PMOS symptoms under control sooner, before there’s more urgency to start in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or other fertility treatments if needed.
Most people with PMOS are still able to get pregnant. PMOS increases your risk of conditions like diabetes in pregnancy and preeclampsia, and the new name also helps providers be more aware of this.
But fertility isn’t the main goal for other patients. Managing hormone levels earlier also helps regulate your period. This helps prevent problems with the endometrial lining in your uterus, like abnormal growth (hyperplasia) or endometrial cancer.
Multidisciplinary care for PMOS symptoms and health risks
The new name brings attention to the fact that PMOS affects more than hormones and reproductive health. Other specialists help manage PMOS symptoms and prevent long-term health risks:
- Metabolic health, including weight management and preventing or managing diabetes
- Mental health, as mood changes, depression, and anxiety are linked to PMOS
- Sleep medicine, as sleep apnea is more common in people with PMOS
- Heart health, as PMOS increases risk of heart conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease
PMOS can create a “vicious cycle” with these areas being so interconnected. Poor sleep or mood can make it hard to exercise or eat healthy even when you really want to. Not eating well or exercising may lead to weight gain and make your PMOS symptoms worse. This can then make your mood and sleep habits worse, starting the cycle all over again.
Dr. Mahalingaiah emphasizes the importance of getting the right care not just from your primary care provider (PCP) or OB/GYN, but specialists in other areas like endocrinology, weight management, mental health, and sleep medicine.
“One of the positives with this name change is that we can come together and create this coordinated, integrated care and risk-reduce over the lifespan,” she says.
Dr. Mahalingaiah and other providers at Mass General Brigham, including Margaret Lippincott, MD, in the Reproductive Endocrinology Program, collaborate across specialties to help patients with PMOS get the right care.
“We're trying to create a home for patients with PMOS so they can have the right set of referral providers who have all of those care practices.”
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Ongoing PMOS research
Dr. Mahalingaiah and her lab research PMOS and other reproductive health conditions.
One study published in JAMA Network Open showed that PMOS and irregular periods may be linked to heart and metabolic conditions, like diabetes, on their own. This means that even if you’re at a higher weight or body mass index (BMI), healthy behaviors like eating well, managing blood sugar, and exercising help reduce health risks related to PMOS.
“I would say that it is more important to prioritize getting healthy behaviors, nutritional balancing for your glucose levels, and stress reduction than looking at an absolute number on the scale,” Dr. Mahalingaiah says.
She believes the name change will also benefit PMOS research across the country. “We might now see more clinical trials in this under-evaluated area.”
There may also be research into new approaches to managing PMOS across different health areas, to see how they improve overall health and reduce long-term risks.
Talk to your doctor about PMOS
If you have PMOS, talk to your PCP or OB/GYN about your treatment plan. They can discuss your goals, make a plan together with you for any new lifestyle changes, and connect you with other specialists if needed.
“Lifestyle medicine is still a huge part of it. And hopefully with the name change, the importance of all the other interventions will increase in their uptake by both patients and providers,” Dr. Mahalingaiah says.