When it comes to women’s health issues, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is among the most common — it affects 10% of women during their reproductive years in the United States.
More alarming is the fact that PCOS numbers continue to rise around the world — from 1990 to 2021, the prevalence of this condition rose by almost 60%.
Given that September is PCOS awareness month in the US, Dr. Fernando Otero and the team at Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley want to focus on this challenging condition, which can have a major quality-of-life impact.
As well, we want to dive into the recent name change for PCOS, which is now called polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). This name change better reflects the nature of PMOS and its impact on a woman’s health and wellness. Let’s take a look.
Let’s start with the recent name change for PCOS, which was rolled out in May 2026. According to the Endocrine Society, this global name change is because PCOS narrowed the focus and interfered with diagnosis. In the society’s words, “The name [PCOS] reduced a complex, long-term hormonal or endocrine disorder to a misunderstanding about ‘cysts’ and a focus on ovaries. This contributed to missed diagnoses and inadequate treatment.”
So, moving forward, PCOS becomes PMOS, which is a better description of what is, at its core, an endocrine (or hormone) issue.
With the name change clarified, let’s now turn our attention to what fuels PMOS. In the briefest of explanations, PMOS is a condition in which your ovaries produce too many androgen hormones, which are associated with more male characteristics. This overproduction creates a hormone imbalance that can cast a very wide net over a woman’s health and wellness.
Often, what fuels this overproduction is insulin resistance, which prompts your ovaries to create more androgen hormones. To give you an idea about this connection, insulin resistance often develops in people with obesity. Connecting the dots, between 40% and 80% of women with PMOS have obesity.
So, when we loop insulin in, which is a hormone, you can see that PMOS extends beyond reproductive hormones.
PMOS typically develops early on in the reproductive stage, but it’s not typically diagnosed until a woman is in her 20s or 30s. After menopause, PMOS often quiets down and symptoms tend to abate.
Now let’s look at the widespread impact that PMOS can have on a woman’s life, and to do that, we’ll list the possible side effects, which include:
As you might imagine given this extensive list of unwelcome side effects, many women with PMOS also struggle with depression, anxiety, and/or stress related to the condition.
Thanks to the new focus on PMOS, we hope that this condition will be diagnosed (and treated) earlier on so that women don’t struggle for decades.
When it comes to treating PMOS, we have options, such as:
And the sooner we start, the sooner you can get back to a better quality of life that isn’t overshadowed by PMOS.
If you suspect you might have PMOS or you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to schedule a consultation.
