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Summia Zaher: What’s in a Name Change of PMOS?
Summia Zaher/LinkedIn
Aug 28, 2026, 14:26

Summia Zaher: What’s in a Name Change of PMOS?

Summia Zaher, CEO of Danat Al Emarat Hospital for Women and Children, shared on LinkedIn:

“What’s in a name change?

Quite a lot, actually.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome — PCOS — has a new name:

Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS).

A change intended to improve the understanding, diagnosis, and care of a condition affecting more than 170 million women worldwide.

And I think the significance goes far beyond terminology.

For years, the name PCOS directed our attention towards the ovaries. Even the word polycystic created confusion. Particularly when many women with the condition do not have ovarian cysts at all.

But this was never simply an ovarian condition.

It can involve reproductive health, insulin resistance, metabolic health, cardiovascular risk, skin, weight and mental wellbeing.

One woman. Many interconnected systems.

And that is why this name change, illustrates something I feel increasingly strongly about in women’s health: the way we define a condition can influence the way we design care around it.

If we think of PMOS primarily as a reproductive problem, the pathway will naturally centre around gynaecology and fertility.

But if we recognise it as a condition with endocrine, metabolic, reproductive and longer-term health implications, the conversation changes.

So does the care.

The woman at the centre may need expertise from several specialties, but she should not have to piece those specialties together herself.

That is what whole-person, connected women’s healthcare should look like.

Perhaps PMOS is more than a name change.

Perhaps it is another reminder that women are not fragmented and their healthcare shouldn’t be either.

I’d be interested to hear from colleagues across women’s health, endocrinology, primary care, cardiology and metabolic medicine:

Do you think changing the name will ultimately change the way we care for women with this condition?”

Summia Zaher, PMOS

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Fertility Fertility News OBGYN PCOS PMOS reproductive health Reproductive Medicine Summia Zaher Women’s Health
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