‘Unprecedented’ global effort gives new name to polycystic ovary syndrome – and new hope to millions of women

After more than a decade of global consultation, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) – a condition that affects one in eight women – has been renamed.

The hormonal disorder, estimated to affect 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.

The renaming was spearheaded by the endocrinologist Prof Helena Teede, the director of Melbourne’s Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation. For too long, experts including Teede say, the misleading nature of the term “polycystic” in PCOS contributed to delayed diagnosis and inadequate medical care.

Announcing the new name at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Prague on Tuesday, Teede said the term PCOS didn’t capture the “multi-system burden that people with this condition have suffered”, and that it “directs attention to only one organ”.

PMOS is hoped to better reflect the condition’s complex nature – which affects not only the reproductive system in people assigned female at birth but also the metabolism and the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 May 2026