Dr Eleanor Galvin said PMOS affects one in eight women

A GP has said that PMOS should not just be examined in women who are seeking to begin families but as a wider health issue.

“We shouldn't be just looking for polycystic ovaries for people's reproductive capacity”, Dr Eleanor Galvin told Ciara Doherty on The Pat Kenny Show. 

Following 14 years of collaboration between international societies and patient groups spanning six continents, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has now been renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). 

The renaming was spearheaded by the endocrinologist Profeossor Helena Teede, the director of Melbourne’s Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation.

“There's a whole load more to PCOS, which is now PMOS, because people can have acne and hair loss as well as too much hairtiredness, chronic fatigue, mood changes, insulin differences", GP Elenear  Galvin told Ciara Doherty on The Pat Kenny Show. 

“It's really a symptom that should be treated with medication under the care of a team, not just a guy who's trying to make your periods regular", she added.

“It should be under a team, an endocrinologist, as well as a guy, as well as a GP, as well as regular follow up, not just something that is kind of pushed under the carpet.”

Newborn baby at maternity.

Studies estimate that one in eight women have PMOS in some form or another, up to 170 million women worldwide.

“It’s better to have a better understanding of something that is so complicated that can make people's women's lives harder”, she said. 

While historically the condition and its side effects were ignored until women were told they were in the age of starting families. 

Hormone Therapy Replacement pills. Picture by Alamy.

“It was kind of like testing them once and you're done”, she said. 

“Whereas now you kind of testmaybe girls coming in late teens and their periods aren't regular. You say maybe they have a bit of PCOS and maybe they don't. Then we check them again at 25 because it might be that regular.

“There’s also now different subtypes recognised.”

Main Image: Close up of a young woman having painful stomachache.