PCOS is now PMOS: What went behind renaming the common condition
Inside the multiyear effort to rename PCOS A physician involved in the long push to change the name PCOS to PMOS takes us behind the scenes of this subtle yet consequential change By Rachel Feltman , Sushmita Pathak & Alex Sugiura Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American ’s Sci
A physician involved in the long push to change the name PCOS to PMOS takes us behind the scenes of this subtle yet consequential change
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American ’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman.
As you may recall from one of our recent news roundup episodes , the condition long known as polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, is in the process of getting an official rebrand. The new name—polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS—was crafted with the intention of minimizing misconceptions about the disease and increasing the accuracy of diagnoses. But while changing one letter in an acronym might seem like a small shift, this new name is the result of years of international collaboration between clinicians, patients and even marketing consultants.
Today’s guest, Anuja Dokras, was one of the leaders of this 14-year effort . She’s the director of the recently renamed Penn PMOS Center at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia. She’s also the Founder’s Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Women’s Health at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Feltman: Thank you so much for coming on to talk with us today.
Feltman: In reading about this name change, I was really impressed at what a huge, multiyear, you know, international effort it was. I would love to start with just sort of, when this began.
When did you and your colleagues start to talk about this being an issue that needed to be addressed?
