For the first time in nearly a century, the name for a condition affecting 170 million women of reproductive age is changing. Polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, will now be called polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS.
The change was announced in The Lancet and endorsed by more than 50 patient and professional organizations, including The Endocrine Society. The old name, coined in 1935, was based on a misunderstanding: doctors thought what they saw on the ovaries were cysts, but they are actually follicles.
“For too long, the name reduced a complex, long-term hormonal disorder to a misunderstanding about ‘cysts,’” The Endocrine Society said in a press release. That contributed to missed diagnoses-up to 70 percent of those affected remain undiagnosed.
Dr. Roland Antaki of the University of Montreal called the change “overdue for a long time.” He expects the full transition to take more than a decade, but hopes patients and the medical community will quickly drop the “C” and embrace the more accurate PMOS.