The condition formerly known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, commonly referred to as PCOS, has a new name: polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome.

PMOS, as it’s now called, is a set of signs and symptoms that often go together, including irregular, extra-long menstrual cycles that can be 35 or more days apart, or cycles that come more frequently and include heavy bleeding. Some don’t get their periods at all.

Other common PMOS symptoms include hair growth in unwanted areas like the face, chin, and stomach, as well as sleep issues, weight gain, and higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Though an estimated 1 in 8 women worldwide have PMOS, it is poorly understood by doctors and patients alike. Its old name symbolized this problem: The condition is more about hormones than it is about ovaries.

The 14-year global renaming effort involved more than 50 patient and professional groups, and included more than 22,000 surveys of patients and medical professionals. Experts hope the new, more scientifically accurate designation will have a big impact on the understanding of PMOS and lead to faster diagnoses and better treatment.

Where did the name PCOS originate?

The condition was originally named Stein-Leventhal syndrome in the 1930s after the two gynecologists who noticed that women with this combination of symptoms also had ovaries that appeared to have lots of little cysts. They thought these bumps around the edges of the ovaries almost looked like a string of pearls.

Doctors referred to these ovaries as “cystic,” which led to the name PCOS.

But that name was confusing. What the doctors were likely actually seeing were fluid-filled follicles.

People with ovaries are born with all the eggs they are ever going to have (about 1 to 2 million). After puberty, a bunch of eggs mature in follicles each month. (This is part of what happens in the first few weeks of your menstrual cycle.) Then one dominant egg pops out and travels down the fallopian tube; that’s ovulation.

That one egg maybe, just maybe, gets fertilized during sex. Or it doesn’t, you get your period, and the cycle starts all over again.

For people with PMOS, this process can stall in the middle, resulting in multiple fluid-filled follicles that look like cysts. While this is one symptom of the syndrome and part of the criteria for diagnosing it, not everyone with PMOS has this issue. But the name polycystic ovarian syndrome made it seem so.

Many people have ovarian cysts at some point in their lives—including me. Mine was the size of a golf ball, hurt like hell, and was removed along with my left ovary at 3 a.m. one Sunday morning in 2017. But PMOS patients are no........

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