PCOS Renamed After 90 Years of Misleading Women Worldwide

For 90 years, doctors have been calling one of the world's most common hormone disorders by a name that was flat-out wrong. That changes now.

Polycystic ovary syndrome, known as PCOS, has officially been renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS. The announcement came this week at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Prague after 14 years of work by healthcare experts, patients, and advocates worldwide.

The old name suggested the problem was all about cysts in the ovaries. But those aren't even cysts at all, just immature eggs that stopped growing. And some women with the condition don't have them at all.

The real issue? This syndrome affects multiple body systems, from hormones to metabolism to mental health. It can cause irregular periods, excess body hair, acne, and sometimes infertility, but it also increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and fatty liver disease.

"For decades, those of us living with this condition have had to 'fight' for diagnosis, and even after diagnosis, misinformation is abundant," said Lorna Berry, a patient who worked on the name change initiative.

The old name came from two Chicago surgeons in 1935 who noticed enlarged ovaries during fertility surgeries. They removed what they thought were cysts, and when some patients got pregnant afterward, they declared it curable with surgery. They were wrong on both counts.

That mistake had real consequences. Up to 70 percent of the 170 million people with this condition worldwide still go undiagnosed. Many doctors focused only on fertility issues and ignored weight problems, mental distress, and skin symptoms.

The Ripple Effect

The new name adds the word "metabolic" for good reason. About 85 percent of patients have insulin resistance, yet they often aren't screened for it properly.

Since 2000, diabetes medication metformin has shown real promise in treating symptoms by reducing insulin and testosterone levels. But because of the old name's narrow focus, many insurance companies still won't cover it as an official treatment.

The name change could fix that. When a condition's name reflects what it actually does, doctors screen for the right things, insurance companies approve the right treatments, and patients get diagnosed earlier.

For the next three years, both names will be used interchangeably to help everyone adjust. Then PCOS will finally be retired for good.

After nearly a century of getting it wrong, millions of women worldwide finally have a name that tells the truth about what's happening in their bodies.