{"id":201,"date":"2026-06-12T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/how-pmos-once-called-pcos-affects-women-after-menopause\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:00:00","slug":"how-pmos-once-called-pcos-affects-women-after-menopause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/how-pmos-once-called-pcos-affects-women-after-menopause\/","title":{"rendered":"How PMOS (once called PCOS) affects women after menopause"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content-repository-content prose max-w-md-lg mx-auto flow-root has-image-links\">\n<p>\n          \n        <\/p>\n<p>The end of monthly periods ushers in a sense of relief for virtually every woman who reaches menopause. Women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS; formerly known as polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS) \u2014 which is characterized by irregular periods and heavy bleeding \u2014 might also expect that the menopause transition represents the end of their PMOS symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>The reality is starkly different, however. A hormonal and metabolic syndrome that can lead to many small, cystlike follicles on the ovaries (see \u201cPCOS has a new name\u201d), PMOS doesn\u2019t vanish with a woman\u2019s reproductive years. Women with this syndrome continue to face some of the same symptoms they had before menopause, as well as ongoing threats of serious health problems for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves the 10 million women with PMOS in the United States with questions when they reach menopause, says Dr. Margaret Lippincott, director of the Multidisciplinary Care Center for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. \u201cThey no longer get their period, but they continue to have all the other metabolic and endocrine features of PMOS, which can be made worse by the menopausal transition.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>PMOS stages and changes<\/h2>\n<p>During the reproductive years, PMOS shows up in a variety of disruptive ways, including<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n            obesity\n          <\/li>\n<li>irregular or painful periods<\/li>\n<li>heavy bleeding<\/li>\n<li>fertility problems<\/li>\n<li>treatment-resistant acne<\/li>\n<li>hair loss on the scalp (known as androgenic alopecia)<\/li>\n<li>hair growth on the face, chest, and back.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For all women, menopause brings the end of ovulation and a dramatic drop in estrogen and other hormones, including androgens \u2014 male hormones such as testosterone that are normally present in small amounts in women. But for those with PMOS, androgen levels may decline only slightly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAndrogen levels remain higher in postmenopausal women with PMOS than estrogen levels do, so they may still have hair loss on the scalp or notice a mild worsening of hair growth where they don\u2019t want it,\u201d Dr. Lippincott explains. \u201cThey may still notice some acne. Those symptoms, hormonally, tend to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Health risks of PMOS after menopause<\/h2>\n<p>Other downstream effects of PMOS after menopause are more sinister. While reproductive symptoms abate, obesity and insulin resistance \u2014 when the pancreas makes insulin but body cells don\u2019t use it effectively \u2014 usually stick around, Dr. Lippincott says. On top of that, the risks of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular disease rise significantly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou could consider it a double hit: for women with PCOS who struggle with weight, or have insulin resistance independent of their weight, menopause itself is associated with a loss of lean mass and an increase in weight distribution around the middle \u2014 both of which are metabolically unfavorable,\u201d Dr. Lippincott says.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, endometrial cancer occurs more often in women with PMOS both before and after menopause because of their history of irregular ovulation and buildup of uterine lining tissue. The average woman has a one-in-33 risk of endometrial cancer; for women with PMOS, it\u2019s about one in 11.<\/p>\n<p>Doctors and patients need to be ever mindful of all these elevated health threats, Dr. Lippincott says. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly important that a PMOS diagnosis never falls off the chart for these women.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Managing PMOS later in life<\/h2>\n<p>Postmenopausal PMOS patients can take important steps to protect their health. Dr. Lippincott suggests these measures:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lifestyle approaches.<\/strong> Healthy eating and regular exercise \u2014 particularly resistance training, which improves the body\u2019s insulin use \u2014 can lower the risks of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Losing weight may also improve PMOS-related health problems, but women with the condition are genetically prone to excess weight. \u201cIt\u2019s within your control to live a healthy lifestyle, independent of any weight loss,\u201d Dr. Lippincott says.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aggressive monitoring.<\/strong> Regular checks of blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure are paramount. \u201cThe first thing women with PMOS can do is know their numbers \u2014 their cholesterol, body mass index, and hemoglobin A1c,\u201d she says. (The latter is a measure of average blood sugar levels over a three-month period.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Medications (if appropriate).<\/strong> These might include cholesterol-lowering statins, blood pressure drugs, and metformin for blood sugar control. \u201cUse modern medicine to help optimize your health,\u201d she says. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to power through this on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n<table class=\"special-case-border\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:1px solid black; height:375px; vertical-align:top; width:623px\">\n<h3>PCOS has a new name<\/h3>\n<p>There was always one glaring problem with the name polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS: many of the 170 million women worldwide with the condition don\u2019t actually have ovarian cysts.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, women with the syndrome tend to have an excess of \u201csmall antral follicles\u201d \u2014 tiny, fluid-filled sacs inside the ovaries that each contain an immature egg \u2014 rather than ovarian cysts, which are typically larger and may cause pain or even rupture or hemorrhage, according to a research letter published online May 11, 2026, by <em>JAMA Internal Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2026, an international group of experts renamed PCOS to reflect a growing understanding that the condition extends far beyond the ovaries. It is now called polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS. \u201cPolyendocrine\u201d means the condition involves several hormone systems in the body, while \u201cmetabolic\u201d refers to PMOS\u2019s effects on how the body regulates blood sugar, uses insulin, and stores energy.<\/p>\n<p>The new moniker should prod scientists and clinicians to think about the syndrome as a broader condition while also speeding diagnosis and improving care, says Dr. Margaret Lippincott, director of the Multidisciplinary Care Center for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome at Massachusetts General Hospital. (She acknowledges that her center will also need to be renamed in light of the development.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that they\u2019ve removed the word &#8216;cyst\u2019 from the name is actually quite helpful,\u201d Dr. Lippincott says. \u201cThe new name better reflects what we\u2019ve known all along.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>\n          <strong><br \/>\n            <small>Image: \u00a9 Anastasiia Zabolotna\/Getty Images<\/small><br \/>\n          <\/strong>\n        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The end of monthly periods ushers in a sense of relief for virtually every woman who reaches menopause. Women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS; formerly known as polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS) \u2014 which is characterized by irregular periods and heavy bleeding \u2014 might also expect that the menopause transition represents the end of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vivlylife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}