Polycystic ovary syndrome has been renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, a change announced Tuesday at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Prague and published the same day in The Lancet. The new name will be fully implemented in the 2028 International Guideline update after a three-year transition period.
The rename follows 14 years of global collaboration and more than 22,000 survey responses from people with lived experience, along with input from more than 50 patient and professional organizations. Professor Helena Teede, who led the process after decades of researching the condition, said the old term pointed people toward the ovaries and away from what was really happening across the body. She said there are no abnormal cysts in PCOS and that the name directed attention to only one organ.
The scale of the condition helps explain why the change matters now. Polycystic ovary syndrome affects 1 in 8 women, or more than 170 million women worldwide, and has reported that it can affect the reproductive system, metabolism, and the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It also reported that about 85% of women with PCOS have insulin resistance.
For many patients, the old label has long felt misleading. Maddy Mavrikis said, “I never had – and still don’t have – cysts on my ovaries, so never really understood why I was diagnosed with ‘polycystic ovaries’.” Her experience reflects the concern behind the rename: that a term centered on cysts helped obscure a complex long-term hormonal disorder with metabolic, mental health, skin and reproductive impacts.
Teede said the process was built around patient benefit, scientific accuracy, ease of communication, avoidance of stigma, cultural appropriateness and implementation. She called it a landmark moment that should drive worldwide advances in clinical practice and research. The hard part now is not deciding whether the old name was wrong. It is making sure patients, clinicians and health systems move fast enough to use the new one by 2028.
