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Decades-long campaign powered by patient perspectives results in switch from PCOS â a name that caused confusion and undue suffering â to PMOS
What is PCOS, what are the symptoms and treatment, and why is it being renamed PMOS? âI still want to screamâ: the loneliness and confusion of living with PMOS
After more than a decade of global consultation, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) â a condition that affects one in eight women â has been renamed.
The hormonal disorder, estimated to impact 170 million women worldwide, will now be known as polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS).
The name change was published in the Lancet and announced at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Prague on Tuesday, after 14 years of collaboration between international societies and patient groups across six continents.
PMOS for short, GPs say the landmark change not only lays to rest a medical misnomer, but will ‘empower’ their diagnoses.
After 14 years of campaigning, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) has been renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) in what has been described as a ‘landmark moment’.
The name change removes the emphasis from cysts and reflects the true nature of the condition as a complex, long-term hormonal or endocrine disorder.
It also places GPs at the centre of effective diagnosis and management of the condition that affects around one in eight women worldwide and can take up to 12 years to diagnose, says Associate Professor Magda Simonis, a GP with an interest in women’s health.
‘We’re really empowered now to make a diagnosis,’ she told newsGP.
‘We don’t need to focus on cysts and the size of cysts on ovaries as a diagnostic criterion, which PCOS always featured as the key criterion.’
The push for the name change, formally announced in Prague and published in The Lancet on Monday evening, has been led by Monash University’s Professor Helena Teede, alongside international experts and organisations, and people with lived experience.
The misunderstanding about ‘cysts’ and a focus on ovaries has led to missed diagnoses and inadequate treatment, said Professor Teede.
‘What we now know is that there is actually no increase in abnormal cysts on the ovary, and the diverse features of the condition were often unappreciated,’ Professor Teede said.
‘It was heartbreaking to see the delayed diagnosis, limited awareness and inadequate care afforded those affected by this neglected condition.
‘Make no mistake, this is a landmark moment that will lead to desperately needed worldwide advancements in clinical practice and research.’
International education and awareness campaigns for health professionals, governments and researchers will be rolled out across a three-year transition period, culminating in PMOS being fully implemented in the International Guideline update in 2028.
Associate Professor Simonis said it will allow GPs to confidently diagnose PMOS, with ‘an emphasis on lifestyle and listening to women’.
‘We can now do this with confidence,’ she said.
‘This is really emphasising the importance of addressing the woman’s full presentation. She may well come in not necessarily talking about irregular periods, but she might be talking about resistance to weight loss. She might be talking about her acne. It depends on the stage of life she’s at.’
Associate Professor Simonis said with the focus of PMOS on hormonal or endocrine disorders, there is now also more potential for GPs to identify women at future risk of other chronic diseases and provide early interventions.
‘When you think about capturing women who are at risk of late onset diabetes and cardiovascular disease, this falls into that really interesting preventative care category, where we can identify the women at risk and manage them appropriately,’ she said.
‘When such a significant endocrine disorder affects so many women, and with so many implications for their life down the track, lifestyle modification is really key, and this is the thing that, in general practice, we’re really well equipped to have these longer conversations with our patients.’
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Annalisa (Nalis) Merelli is a contributing writer at STAT focused on boys’ and men’s health.
Revealed Tuesday, the one-letter change in nomenclature for a common metabolic condition in women may seem unremarkable, but it follows more than a decade of vigorous debate over the need for a name that more precisely and completely describes what until now was known as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
The revised name — polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS — was introduced in a paper published in The Lancet and presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Prague. It was the nearly unanimous choice of a panel of clinicians, researchers, and patient advocates, although there remains some dissatisfaction — in part because retaining “ovarian” in the name doesn’t allow for the possibility, suggested by some early research, of a male form of the syndrome.
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