I remember sitting in the doctor’s office feeling relieved. Finally, I had a diagnosis that could explain the weird symptoms and fertility challenges I was experiencing: polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). But that relief quickly turned to confusion.
“So wait, does that mean I have cysts?”
I’d just had an ultrasound where we saw a telltale sign of PCOS: a “string of pearls” along the edge of each ovary. The “pearls” weren’t cysts, however, but rather immature follicles containing undeveloped eggs. Meanwhile, I was dealing with mysterious new body hair growth, acne, hormonal imbalances and a period that had gone MIA.
When I shared my diagnosis with loved ones, the same question arose. “So you have ovarian cysts?” And the answer remained the same: “Not really.”
That confusion wasn’t limited to my particular case. For years, patients and doctors alike have struggled with this condition’s name, which pointed to the wrong thing and obscured a much bigger picture.
But now that name has finally changed.
“As of May 12, 2026, a major international consensus has been made to officially rename polycystic ovary syndrome to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS,” Dr. Shanin Ghadir, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist with HRC Fertility, told HuffPost.
The renaming has been in the works for many years.
“For a long time, leading experts have been voicing their concerns about the name because it did not appropriately describe the effects of the condition,” said Dr. Roy Handelsman, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist with HRC Fertility. “The name change was not a simple process. It is the result of the engagement of 56 academic, clinical and patient organizations, using global surveys with responses from over 10,000 people with PCOS as well as health professionals from all over the world.”
The groundbreaking shift was led by Australian endocrinologist and researcher Dr. Helena Teede, whose team at Monash University drove the process ― an international collaboration involving doctors, researchers, patients, advocates and more.
“It is one of the most significant and long overdue shifts in women’s health,” said Dr. Prati Sharma, a double board-certified OB-GYN, reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist and medical advisor to Bird&Be.
“Although the NIH first formally flagged the inaccuracy of the PCOS name in 2012, this process has taken over a decade,” she added. “Medical name changes happen, but this is the first I have seen with this degree of patient involvement with thousands of women living with this condition contributing to the decision-making process. It was a team effort!”
The journey was long, but for the 170 million people with PMOS around the world, the new name will be a welcome change.
So, what exactly is PMOS, formerly known as PCOS?
“PMOS is a chronic condition that affects 1 in 8 women and people with ovaries, from as early as adolescence through menopause,” said Dr. Basma Faris, a board-certified OB-GYN and assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It is a condition that impacts multiple hormones and organ systems, including the reproductive system, the dermatologic system, the metabolic system and the brain.”
Characterized by hormone fluctuations, the multisystem condition can have a strikingly wide range of impacts.
“Common symptoms include irregular periods, weight gain or difficulty losing weight, acne, excessive facial and body hair, male pattern baldness, thinning hair, difficulty getting pregnant and insulin resistance,” Ghadir said. “Generally speaking, it involves elevated male hormone levels as well.”
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PMOS is also associated with obesity, infertility, and mental health challenges like depression and anxiety.
“Long-term risks include type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and endometrial cancer,” said Dr. Sahar Wertheimer, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist with HRC Fertility.
Doctors in the U.S. diagnose PMOS using what’s known as the Rotterdam criteria, which requires meeting two out of three conditions.
“Firstly, irregular or absent ovulation, which is noted by irregular period and trouble conceiving,” Ghadir said. “Secondly, signs of elevated male hormones such as acne, excess facial or body hair and male pattern baldness, or thinning of the hair or elevated testosterone on blood tests. Thirdly, ultrasound findings, showing the ovaries being ‘polycystic’ and enlarged with greater than 12 small follicles on each ovary.”
Estimates suggest that nearly 70% of those with PMOS remain undiagnosed.
“It’s less simple to diagnose because depending on the patient’s medical history, clinical visits, lab work and ultrasound images are all needed to make the diagnosis,” Handelsman said. “For these reasons, it remains underdiagnosed or with a large delay in diagnosis.”
Just as PMOS manifests in a variety of ways, there are also many different treatment approaches depending on symptoms and goals.
“For example, for women who have effects from high androgens, the treatment addresses that,” Handelsman said. “Lifestyle changes ― including diet, weight loss and increased activity ― have been shown to help manage the effects.”
Many doctors prescribe birth control pills to help regulate cycles and hormone levels. Other medications that can treat PMOS symptoms include metformin and spironolactone. For those who are trying to conceive, fertility specialists may recommend ovulation induction, IUI or IVF, depending on individual circumstances.
“Finally, there are very important metabolic effects, like impact on diabetes and blood pressure, so focus must be put on managing that with lifestyle changes or medication,” Handelsman said.
In my case, I only started experiencing PMOS symptoms when I stopped taking birth control, so it’s possible I’d had the condition for years without knowing because I was already treating it.
My current treatment approach involves dietary changes, acupuncture and medicated cycles for fertility. Although I’m still figuring it out, I feel reassured by the options available to me. And I’m glad the new name for the condition now matches my experience.
Here’s why the name change was necessary ― and long overdue.
“The old name was wrong on two counts,” said nurse practitioner and menopause expert Vanessa Coppola. “The ‘cysts’ aren’t actually cysts. They’re immature follicles that stalled out, and they’re not pathological. And the ovary isn’t the main story. The disease is a whole-body hormonal and metabolic condition that happens to show some of its features at the ovary.”
By focusing on one specific criterion that doesn’t affect every patient, the name distorted the clinical picture, leading to potential confusion, diagnostic delay, substandard care and stigma.
“Also, people would confuse PCOS with having pathologic ovarian cysts that can cause pain and sometimes require surgery,” Faris said.
Meanwhile, issues like insulin resistance, cardiovascular risks and mental health effects could get overlooked.
“Personally, I’ve had a bone to pick with the term ‘PCOS’ for a long time,” Handelsman said. “My patients and colleagues have heard me call PCOS a misnomer like a broken record. It bothered me that it wasn’t just false, leading women to believe they have ovarian cysts when they don’t, but it also didn’t describe all the important medical effects they should be aware of with the diagnosis.”
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The name also limited the scope of care and failed to foster the integrated approach that would improve outcomes for people with PMOS.
“Because the condition has largely been viewed as gynecologic, research and medical education have focused heavily on the reproductive aspects, leaving knowledge gaps among doctors in other specialties, despite the condition impacting so many systems,” Sharma said.
Name changes are rare in medicine, Faris noted, but significant.
“They can happen when multiple stakeholders decide the current name doesn’t reflect our current scientific understanding of a condition,” she said. “Sometimes they are changed because of stigma that may be associated with them, sometimes because of historical associations that are unethical.”
In the case of PMOS, Coppola emphasized that the old name caused tangible harm.
“I say that as a clinician who has sat across from women who lived inside that harm for years,” Coppola said. “Women told they couldn’t have PCOS because their ultrasound looked clean. Women whose metabolic risk was completely missed because the condition was filed away as a gynecologic issue. Women who quietly carried shame about the word ‘cysts,’ which didn’t even describe what was happening inside their bodies. The diagnostic delay for this condition has been measured in years, sometimes more than a decade.”
The new name aims to bring greater clarity and awareness around this complex medical condition.
“A name that reflects the full condition should mean earlier diagnosis, better treatment and more research funding,” Wertheimer said. “Updates to clinical guidelines, medical education and international disease classification systems will follow, so this isn’t just symbolic.”
The name PMOS does a better job of helping patients understand what’s happening with their bodies.
“It moves the endocrine and metabolic dysfunction to the front, where they belong clinically, and it keeps the ovarian piece because the ovary is still part of the picture,” Coppola said. “Polyendocrine ― many hormonal systems are involved. Metabolic ― insulin resistance and the metabolic features are central. Ovarian syndrome ― the reproductive component remains.”
She believes the new name paints the full picture of the condition and points toward more integrated, whole-body care.
“Historically, if someone wasn’t interested in pregnancy, they were often told to ‘take birth control pills and come back when you want to get pregnant’ or ‘just lose weight and it will get better,’” Faris said. “The new name will, hopefully, prompt doctors and other health care professionals to approach the care of PMOS in a more holistic way with an emphasis on prevention.”
The name change is a landmark moment, but the work of implementing it across the global medical system is just the beginning.
“Whether it’s called PCOS or PMOS, it’s important to know that we have ways to manage the condition,” Handelsman said. “That management changes based on goals. I encourage women to seek care from experts who know how to manage PMOS to reach their goals, whether that’s overall health, control of hair growth and acne, or to help conceive.”
Coppola welcomed the news but was candid about the road ahead.
“Three years is fast to update international disease classification systems, medical education curricula, EMR templates, insurance authorization language and patient-facing materials across 196 countries,” she said. “For a stretch of time, we’ll be in a hybrid world where some clinicians say PCOS and some say PMOS, and patients will need careful communication. The science is settled. The rollout is the work ahead.”
But for patients like me, I believe the work will be worth it.