SRINAGAR: The Indian Council of Medical Research PCOS Task Force has formally objected to the proposed renaming of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) to Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS), arguing that the move lacks sufficient global evidence and excludes data from countries with the highest disease burden, including India and China.
The objection was issued by Mohd Ashraf Ganie, who serves as National Chief Coordinator of the ICMR-PCOS Task Force, along with principal investigators Neena Malhotra and Rakesh K Sahay. The response follows the recent publication and announcement of the proposed nomenclature change at the European Congress of Endocrinology and in The Lancet.
The researchers stated that while there has been long-standing discussion within the medical community regarding revision of the existing PCOS nomenclature, the proposed transition to PMOS did not adequately reflect data from populations representing the largest number of patients affected by the condition.
According to the ICMR Task Force, India and China together account for an estimated 75 million women affected by PCOS, including around 44 million in India and 31 million in China. The group said the consensus process did not sufficiently incorporate findings from major datasets in these countries, including an Indian multicentre cohort involving nearly 9,000 participants.
The researchers also raised concerns over the use of the term “ovarian” in the proposed name, stating that findings from their community-based cohort showed that many women diagnosed with the syndrome exhibited normal ovarian morphology. They argued that the condition represented a broader metabolic disorder rather than one confined to ovarian abnormalities.
The Task Force further said the inclusion of the term “polyendocrine” could create confusion in primary healthcare settings with other endocrine disorders such as Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia and Autoimmune Polyglandular Syndrome. The group also noted that hyperandrogenism, which it described as a key clinical feature of the syndrome, was absent from the proposed terminology.
The researchers additionally highlighted what they described as a “Pre-PCOS” phenotype identified during long-term studies in India, involving women with metabolic abnormalities such as insulin resistance, hypertension and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease who may not meet current diagnostic criteria for PCOS.
The Task Force called for reconsideration of the renaming process and urged the global scientific community to develop an evidence-based and organ-neutral diagnostic framework incorporating broader metabolic and genetic markers across populations.
