Everything You Need to Know About the O-Shot and M-Shot
By: The Hidden Epidemic of Sexual Health and What We Can Do
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Tempe 480.968.5673
Glendale 602.374.3374
Phoenix 602.441.3305
Chandler480.447.1165
Valley Medical Weight Loss & Med Spa If you’ve been diagnosed with PCOS, you may start hearing your provider use a different name: PMOS, or Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome. It is not a new condition. PMOS is the new name for what we’ve known for decades as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome,
If you’ve been diagnosed with PCOS, you may start hearing your provider use a different name: PMOS, or Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome.
It is not a new condition. PMOS is the new name for what we’ve known for decades as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, or PCOS.
The change was announced in May 2026 following a large international consensus process led by endocrinologist Professor Helena Teede of Monash University. The work was published in The Lancet and involved 56 academic, clinical and patient organizations as well as more than 14,000 people with PCOS and healthcare professionals who participated in global surveys.¹ The Endocrine Society was among the organizations involved in the effort.²
I think the name change is overdue.
The term “polycystic ovary syndrome” has always created confusion because it makes the condition sound like it’s primarily about ovarian cysts. It isn’t. In fact, one of the reasons for the change is that the old name implied pathological ovarian cysts while failing to reflect the broader endocrine and metabolic features of the condition.¹
PMOS gives us a better way to talk about what may actually be happening. Hormones are involved. Metabolic health can be involved. Reproductive health is involved. Weight, insulin resistance and other health concerns may be part of the picture too.
And that picture doesn’t look exactly the same in every woman.
Yes. PMOS is the new name for the condition previously called PCOS.¹
Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome.¹
The new name better reflects the endocrine, metabolic and ovarian features of the condition instead of focusing on “cysts.”¹
No. The old name contributed to the misconception that pathological ovarian cysts define the condition.
PMOS affects approximately 1 in 8 women worldwide, representing more than 170 million women.
The simplest answer is that PCOS wasn’t a very accurate name.
The word “polycystic” put a tremendous amount of attention on the ovaries. That’s a problem when we’re talking about a condition that can involve endocrine function, metabolism, reproductive health and longer-term health concerns.
I’ve seen how confusing the old terminology can be. A woman may have irregular periods, elevated androgens and other signs that make us consider PCOS, but she has been told at some point that she doesn’t have ovarian cysts. Naturally, she assumes PCOS has been ruled out.
It hasn’t necessarily been ruled out at all.
The international consensus behind the PMOS name specifically identified the old terminology as inaccurate because it implied pathological ovarian cysts while obscuring the condition’s endocrine and metabolic features.¹
The new name gives us a better framework.
Polyendocrine recognizes that multiple hormonal or endocrine pathways may be involved.
Metabolic brings metabolic health into the name, where I think it belongs.
Ovarian recognizes the reproductive and ovarian component without allowing it to define the entire condition.
Patients will probably continue hearing both PCOS and PMOS for some time. That’s to be expected with a terminology change this significant.
There isn’t one “PMOS patient.” The symptoms and their severity can be quite different from woman to woman.
Common concerns can include irregular or absent menstrual periods, problems with ovulation, elevated androgen levels, acne, increased facial or body hair, thinning scalp hair, fertility concerns, insulin resistance and changes in weight.
For some patients, menstrual irregularity is what brings them into the office. Someone else may have struggled with acne or unwanted hair for years. Another woman may not start putting the pieces together until she is trying to become pregnant or begins having difficulty managing her weight.
This is where I think we have to be careful about diagnosing ourselves from symptom lists online. Fatigue, weight gain, acne or an irregular period can happen for many reasons. PMOS is one possibility, not the automatic answer.
I would much rather have a patient come in and say, “Something has changed and I don’t know why,” than decide on her own that she either definitely has PMOS or definitely doesn’t.
No. Ovarian cysts are not required for every PMOS diagnosis.
This deserves its own section because the misconception has been around for so long.
The word “polycystic” in the former name helped create the impression that pathological ovarian cysts were a defining feature. The international consensus group specifically identified this as one of the problems with the PCOS name.¹
So if you’ve previously been told, “You don’t have cysts, so you don’t have PCOS,” I wouldn’t consider that statement alone enough to settle the question. Your provider needs to look at the rest of your clinical picture.
Subscribe for expert insights on lipotropic injections, metabolism support, and proven weight loss strategies. Get practical advice delivered straight to your inbox.
There is no single “PMOS test.”
Diagnosis in adults is based on a combination of clinical findings. Historically, the international evidence-based guideline has considered ovulatory dysfunction, clinical or biochemical evidence of hyperandrogenism and polycystic ovarian morphology while also requiring other possible causes to be excluded.³
That last part gets overlooked.
A proper evaluation isn’t simply checking one hormone level or ordering an ultrasound and calling it done. When I’m evaluating a patient, I want the history too. What’s happening with her menstrual cycle? When did the symptoms start? What medications is she taking? Has her weight changed? Is pregnancy a goal? Is there a family history of diabetes or other metabolic disease?
The laboratory results matter, but they make more sense when you know the patient they’re attached to.
This may be the part of the name change that matters most to many of my patients.
PMOS isn’t only a reproductive health condition. Metabolic dysfunction can be an important part of the condition, which is why metabolic health now appears directly in the name.¹
That doesn’t mean every woman with PMOS is overweight. She isn’t.
It also doesn’t mean excess weight caused her PMOS.
Women across different body sizes can have this condition, and reducing the entire conversation to “lose weight” does patients a disservice.
Depending on the individual patient, I may want to understand what’s happening with blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol, weight history and other metabolic markers alongside her hormonal and reproductive health.
Those pieces belong in the same conversation.
Some women with PMOS experience weight gain or find weight management more difficult. Others don’t.
When a patient tells me that her body isn’t responding the way it used to, I’m interested in why. That means looking beyond the scale and considering her health history, nutrition, activity, sleep, medications, metabolic markers and hormonal picture. Sometimes several things are contributing at once.
What I don’t want is for a woman with PMOS to walk away thinking every health problem she has is because of her weight. Weight may be clinically important, but it is one part of a much larger condition.
Subscribe for expert insights on lipotropic injections, metabolism support, and proven weight loss strategies. Get practical advice delivered straight to your inbox.
This is a question I expect we’re going to hear more often.
GLP-1 medications may be considered for weight management in some adults with PMOS when medically appropriate. That is different from saying a GLP-1 medication “treats PMOS.”
I think that distinction matters.
If a patient has PMOS and also meets the appropriate criteria for medical weight management, medication may be one part of her treatment discussion. But PMOS can involve reproductive, endocrine and metabolic concerns that aren’t reduced to a number on the scale.
At Valley Medical, compounded GLP-1 medications are prescribed under medical supervision after an individual medical evaluation and determination of clinical appropriateness.
Not by itself.
Changing PCOS to PMOS gives us a more accurate name for the condition. It doesn’t suddenly give us one treatment that is right for everyone.
That’s because the goals can be very different. A 24-year-old concerned about irregular periods and future fertility may need a different conversation than a 42-year-old whose primary concerns are metabolic health and weight. Even when two women meet the same diagnostic criteria, I wouldn’t assume their priorities or treatment plans should be identical.
Lifestyle, nutrition, physical activity, sleep and medications may all enter the discussion depending on the patient.
The diagnosis gives us information. The patient still determines where the conversation starts.
September is PMOS Awareness Month and Healthy Aging Month, which is a useful coincidence because I don’t think healthy aging begins when someone turns 50.
The metabolic and hormonal health questions we address in our 20s, 30s and 40s don’t exist in isolation from our future health.
PMOS is a good example. A woman may initially seek help because her periods are irregular or she’s having trouble managing her weight. That visit can also be an opportunity to look at metabolic health and other risk factors she may not have realized were connected.
That’s what healthy aging means to me clinically. It isn’t trying to stop the aging process. It is understanding your health well enough to make better decisions as your body changes.
If your menstrual cycles have become persistently irregular, you’re experiencing signs of androgen excess such as unwanted facial hair or significant acne, you’re having fertility concerns or you’ve noticed metabolic or weight changes that don’t make sense to you, it’s reasonable to bring those concerns to a healthcare provider.
You don’t need to arrive knowing whether you have PMOS. In fact, I’d prefer that you don’t feel like you have to diagnose yourself first.
Tell us what has changed, when it started and what you’re concerned about. From there, we can determine what questions we need to ask and whether additional evaluation makes sense.
We’re going to be hearing both PCOS and PMOS for a while. That’s fine.
What matters more to me is that the new name gives patients and providers a better starting point for understanding the condition.
PMOS isn’t simply about ovarian cysts. It isn’t simply about fertility and it isn’t simply about weight. It’s a complex endocrine condition that can involve reproductive and metabolic health in different ways for different women.
If changing the name helps more women understand that and leads to better conversations with their providers, then I think it’s a worthwhile change.
Perhaps the most useful question isn’t, “Do I have cysts?”
It’s “Could these things I’m experiencing be connected?”
That’s a much better place to start.
Talk with a licensed medical provider about what you’ve been experiencing, your health history and whether additional evaluation may be appropriate.
By Dr. Samuel Zuniga, ND
Valley Medical Weight Loss | Chandler, Arizona
If you’ve been diagnosed with PCOS, you may start hearing your provider use a different name: PMOS, or Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome.
It is not a new condition. PMOS is the new name for what we’ve known for decades as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, or PCOS.
The change was announced in May 2026 following a large international consensus process led by endocrinologist Professor Helena Teede of Monash University. The work was published in The Lancet and involved 56 academic, clinical and patient organizations as well as more than 14,000 people with PCOS and healthcare professionals who participated in global surveys.¹ The Endocrine Society was among the organizations involved in the effort.²
I think the name change is overdue.
The term “polycystic ovary syndrome” has always created confusion because it makes the condition sound like it’s primarily about ovarian cysts. It isn’t. In fact, one of the reasons for the change is that the old name implied pathological ovarian cysts while failing to reflect the broader endocrine and metabolic features of the condition.¹
PMOS gives us a better way to talk about what may actually be happening. Hormones are involved. Metabolic health can be involved. Reproductive health is involved. Weight, insulin resistance and other health concerns may be part of the picture too.
And that picture doesn’t look exactly the same in every woman.
Yes. PMOS is the new name for the condition previously called PCOS.¹
Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome.¹
The new name better reflects the endocrine, metabolic and ovarian features of the condition instead of focusing on “cysts.”¹
No. The old name contributed to the misconception that pathological ovarian cysts define the condition.
PMOS affects approximately 1 in 8 women worldwide, representing more than 170 million women.
The simplest answer is that PCOS wasn’t a very accurate name.
The word “polycystic” put a tremendous amount of attention on the ovaries. That’s a problem when we’re talking about a condition that can involve endocrine function, metabolism, reproductive health and longer-term health concerns.
I’ve seen how confusing the old terminology can be. A woman may have irregular periods, elevated androgens and other signs that make us consider PCOS, but she has been told at some point that she doesn’t have ovarian cysts. Naturally, she assumes PCOS has been ruled out.
It hasn’t necessarily been ruled out at all.
The international consensus behind the PMOS name specifically identified the old terminology as inaccurate because it implied pathological ovarian cysts while obscuring the condition’s endocrine and metabolic features.¹
The new name gives us a better framework.
Polyendocrine recognizes that multiple hormonal or endocrine pathways may be involved.
Metabolic brings metabolic health into the name, where I think it belongs.
Ovarian recognizes the reproductive and ovarian component without allowing it to define the entire condition.
Patients will probably continue hearing both PCOS and PMOS for some time. That’s to be expected with a terminology change this significant.
There isn’t one “PMOS patient.” The symptoms and their severity can be quite different from woman to woman.
Common concerns can include irregular or absent menstrual periods, problems with ovulation, elevated androgen levels, acne, increased facial or body hair, thinning scalp hair, fertility concerns, insulin resistance and changes in weight.
For some patients, menstrual irregularity is what brings them into the office. Someone else may have struggled with acne or unwanted hair for years. Another woman may not start putting the pieces together until she is trying to become pregnant or begins having difficulty managing her weight.
This is where I think we have to be careful about diagnosing ourselves from symptom lists online. Fatigue, weight gain, acne or an irregular period can happen for many reasons. PMOS is one possibility, not the automatic answer.
I would much rather have a patient come in and say, “Something has changed and I don’t know why,” than decide on her own that she either definitely has PMOS or definitely doesn’t.
No. Ovarian cysts are not required for every PMOS diagnosis.
This deserves its own section because the misconception has been around for so long.
The word “polycystic” in the former name helped create the impression that pathological ovarian cysts were a defining feature. The international consensus group specifically identified this as one of the problems with the PCOS name.¹
So if you’ve previously been told, “You don’t have cysts, so you don’t have PCOS,” I wouldn’t consider that statement alone enough to settle the question. Your provider needs to look at the rest of your clinical picture.
Subscribe for expert insights on lipotropic injections, metabolism support, and proven weight loss strategies. Get practical advice delivered straight to your inbox.
There is no single “PMOS test.”
Diagnosis in adults is based on a combination of clinical findings. Historically, the international evidence-based guideline has considered ovulatory dysfunction, clinical or biochemical evidence of hyperandrogenism and polycystic ovarian morphology while also requiring other possible causes to be excluded.³
That last part gets overlooked.
A proper evaluation isn’t simply checking one hormone level or ordering an ultrasound and calling it done. When I’m evaluating a patient, I want the history too. What’s happening with her menstrual cycle? When did the symptoms start? What medications is she taking? Has her weight changed? Is pregnancy a goal? Is there a family history of diabetes or other metabolic disease?
The laboratory results matter, but they make more sense when you know the patient they’re attached to.
This may be the part of the name change that matters most to many of my patients.
PMOS isn’t only a reproductive health condition. Metabolic dysfunction can be an important part of the condition, which is why metabolic health now appears directly in the name.¹
That doesn’t mean every woman with PMOS is overweight. She isn’t.
It also doesn’t mean excess weight caused her PMOS.
Women across different body sizes can have this condition, and reducing the entire conversation to “lose weight” does patients a disservice.
Depending on the individual patient, I may want to understand what’s happening with blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol, weight history and other metabolic markers alongside her hormonal and reproductive health.
Those pieces belong in the same conversation.
Some women with PMOS experience weight gain or find weight management more difficult. Others don’t.
When a patient tells me that her body isn’t responding the way it used to, I’m interested in why. That means looking beyond the scale and considering her health history, nutrition, activity, sleep, medications, metabolic markers and hormonal picture. Sometimes several things are contributing at once.
What I don’t want is for a woman with PMOS to walk away thinking every health problem she has is because of her weight. Weight may be clinically important, but it is one part of a much larger condition.
Subscribe for expert insights on lipotropic injections, metabolism support, and proven weight loss strategies. Get practical advice delivered straight to your inbox.
This is a question I expect we’re going to hear more often.
GLP-1 medications may be considered for weight management in some adults with PMOS when medically appropriate. That is different from saying a GLP-1 medication “treats PMOS.”
I think that distinction matters.
If a patient has PMOS and also meets the appropriate criteria for medical weight management, medication may be one part of her treatment discussion. But PMOS can involve reproductive, endocrine and metabolic concerns that aren’t reduced to a number on the scale.
At Valley Medical, compounded GLP-1 medications are prescribed under medical supervision after an individual medical evaluation and determination of clinical appropriateness.
Not by itself.
Changing PCOS to PMOS gives us a more accurate name for the condition. It doesn’t suddenly give us one treatment that is right for everyone.
That’s because the goals can be very different. A 24-year-old concerned about irregular periods and future fertility may need a different conversation than a 42-year-old whose primary concerns are metabolic health and weight. Even when two women meet the same diagnostic criteria, I wouldn’t assume their priorities or treatment plans should be identical.
Lifestyle, nutrition, physical activity, sleep and medications may all enter the discussion depending on the patient.
The diagnosis gives us information. The patient still determines where the conversation starts.
September is PMOS Awareness Month and Healthy Aging Month, which is a useful coincidence because I don’t think healthy aging begins when someone turns 50.
The metabolic and hormonal health questions we address in our 20s, 30s and 40s don’t exist in isolation from our future health.
PMOS is a good example. A woman may initially seek help because her periods are irregular or she’s having trouble managing her weight. That visit can also be an opportunity to look at metabolic health and other risk factors she may not have realized were connected.
That’s what healthy aging means to me clinically. It isn’t trying to stop the aging process. It is understanding your health well enough to make better decisions as your body changes.
If your menstrual cycles have become persistently irregular, you’re experiencing signs of androgen excess such as unwanted facial hair or significant acne, you’re having fertility concerns or you’ve noticed metabolic or weight changes that don’t make sense to you, it’s reasonable to bring those concerns to a healthcare provider.
You don’t need to arrive knowing whether you have PMOS. In fact, I’d prefer that you don’t feel like you have to diagnose yourself first.
Tell us what has changed, when it started and what you’re concerned about. From there, we can determine what questions we need to ask and whether additional evaluation makes sense.
We’re going to be hearing both PCOS and PMOS for a while. That’s fine.
What matters more to me is that the new name gives patients and providers a better starting point for understanding the condition.
PMOS isn’t simply about ovarian cysts. It isn’t simply about fertility and it isn’t simply about weight. It’s a complex endocrine condition that can involve reproductive and metabolic health in different ways for different women.
If changing the name helps more women understand that and leads to better conversations with their providers, then I think it’s a worthwhile change.
Perhaps the most useful question isn’t, “Do I have cysts?”
It’s “Could these things I’m experiencing be connected?”
That’s a much better place to start.
Talk with a licensed medical provider about what you’ve been experiencing, your health history and whether additional evaluation may be appropriate.
By: The Hidden Epidemic of Sexual Health and What We Can Do
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