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PMOS was first identified in the 1930s and given the name Stein\u2013Leventhal syndrome after the doctors who described it. Later, doctors switched to PCOS after identifying what looked like cysts on the ovaries under a microscope.<\/p>\n
But cysts was never the right word to describe what doctors were seeing. What looked like cysts were actually follicles lining the ovary holding immature eggs that could not be released. And these so-called cysts were just one part of the condition.<\/p>\n
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The focus on cysts could create confusion for patients navigating a constellation of symptoms throughout their lives, and often led to delayed diagnoses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHearing \u2018polycystic,\u2019 it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t have cysts,\u2019\u201d said Kate Chenoweth, a publicist in Los Angeles and former San Francisco resident.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chenoweth, who was diagnosed with PMOS last year at age 37, said she spent years being told by medical professionals that her symptoms were simply \u201cbad periods.\u201d She started seeing doctors at age 12, when her periods would last for nine days and come twice a month. She would ask what was wrong with her and doctors would say, \u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou spend your whole life kind of being gaslit into thinking \u2026 it\u2019s something you just have to grit your teeth and bear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Diagnosing PMOS<\/p>\n
Along with the new name are new guidelines for diagnosing it. Previously, doctors needed to identify cysts on the ovaries to make a diagnosis, but that\u2019s no longer the case. Instead, doctors look at three criteria: irregular menstrual cycles, elevated levels of male hormones and certain findings on the ovaries from an ultrasound.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s not a black and white diagnosis,\u201d said Dr. Sun Kim, a Stanford endocrinologist who specializes in treating PMOS. \u201cYou only need to meet two out of three criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some women, PMOS is closely tied to problems like insulin resistance, raising blood sugar levels and increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Other women mainly experience irregular periods or have trouble conceiving. Some experience a combination of everything. PMOS also has been associated with mental health issues, including depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen with PCOS, probably because of the elevated hormones, are at risk for sleep apnea and fatty liver disease,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI think (the name) puts attention on how multifaceted this disease is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The previous name could also be stigmatizing for some women who \u201cfelt almost embarrassed\u201d at the idea of having cysts on their ovaries, said Dr. Heather Huddleston, director of UCSF\u2019s PMOS clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople could be discriminated against or it could be stigmatizing, to feel like you have this ovarian fertility condition,\u201d Huddleston said. \u201cSo for them, moving it away from \u2018cysts\u2019 was important.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The future of PMOS<\/p>\n
Doctors and patients hope the new name will improve research into the condition and, eventually, treatments. There is no cure for PMOS, and it\u2019s usually treated with lifestyle changes, hormone replacement and medications like insulin as needed.<\/p>\n
PMOS historically has not been well studied for a condition that affects 170 million people worldwide, said Bhalala. That\u2019s partly because it was widely considered a gynecologic condition, which isn\u2019t as well funded for research as, say, metabolic syndromes. With greater understanding that PMOS affects much more than fertility and periods, doctors hope to attract more money to fund more research and clinical trials.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe there are some medications that have been used for diabetes or weight loss that can ultimately work to balance this metabolic syndrome,\u201d said Bhalala.\u201cI think it will open up ways to research this that is not in women\u2019s health corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
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For patients like Chenoweth, the validation this name change provides is meaningful, not only as a recognition of experiences that were long dismissed, but as a guide for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat all these things are very much explainable, and also to a certain extent treatable, is really empowering,\u201d she said, \u201cand honestly life-changing in terms of just mindset and not feeling like it\u2019s just this endless abyss of no answers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctors recently renamed polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS, as polyendocrine metabolic syndrome, or PMOS, to better reflect the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60,162899],"class_list":["post-477391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-us-and-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}