After an international consensus endorsed by 56 professional and patient organisations, polycystic ovary syndrome has been renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). This AJOG special report, published 10 September, sets out what the change means for obstetricians and gynaecologists.
The ovarian appearance reflects arrested antral follicles, not cysts, and the old name kept attention on fertility rather than a lifelong endocrine and metabolic condition. It affects about 10–13% of reproductive-age women and is linked in pregnancy to miscarriage, gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders, caesarean delivery, preterm birth and fetal growth restriction, with many associations persisting after adjustment for age and BMI.
The diagnostic criteria are unchanged: two of irregular cycles with ovulatory dysfunction, clinical or biochemical hyperandrogenism, and raised anti-Müllerian hormone or polycystic morphology on ultrasound. What changes is how the diagnosis is used — as a risk modifier at booking, and as a prompt for metabolic and mental health screening across the life course.
- Ask about a PCOS/PMOS diagnosis at the booking visit and record it as an obstetric risk factor.
- Consider early glucose testing in pregnant women with PMOS, given the raised gestational diabetes risk.
- Screen women with PMOS for depression, anxiety and cardiometabolic risk, not only fertility.
- Diagnostic criteria have not changed — existing diagnoses stand under the new name.
Why it matters
Moves the condition out of the fertility clinic and into antenatal risk assessment, where it is routinely missed.
Don't overread it
The rename changes the frame, not the criteria — no woman gains or loses the diagnosis.
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