The Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) marked PMOS Awareness Month this September by hosting a media roundtable titled ‘PMOS: Beyond Periods and Pregnancy’. With a 2026 study revealing that an alarming 48.5 per cent of women in Pakistan suffer from PMOS, the AKUH specialists gathered with health journalists to unpack this common, yet widely misunderstood, hormonal disorder.

Previously known as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), the condition was proposed to be renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS) in 2026 following a consensus led by global reproductive and endocrine experts. This new name deliberately places the metabolic and hormonal drivers of the condition front and centre.

During the roundtable, experts challenged the misconception that PMOS is solely an infertility issue. Instead, they presented a wider view of PMOS as a complex, hormonal condition that affects a woman’s weight, skin, menstrual cycles and emotional well-being.

It is also closely linked to severe, long-term health risks, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and depression. Seen this way, PMOS is a comprehensive women’s health issue that runs through the whole body, not a single problem confined to fertility.

A recurring theme was how often PMOS is misunderstood or self-diagnosed. Irregular periods do not always mean PMOS, and PMOS cannot be diagnosed from an ultrasound alone. Additionally, PMOS is not only caused in overweight women, as in South Asia even lean or thin women can develop PMOS.