Nicola Davis

It's a multifaceted condition.

So women who have it often have irregular periods, sometimes no periods, irregular ovulation.

Sometimes there's excess hair, so facial hair, body hair,

sometimes acne, sometimes weight gain.

So lots of different features.

Yeah it's a problem that the old name was quite misleading.

So the first word there was polycystic and the problem with this was first of all it put all the emphasis on the ovaries when as I've said there are lots of different manifestations and it's actually it's a hormonal disruption essentially that's going on.

So that's where the polyendocrine part of the new name comes from.

The endocrine system is our hormonal system.

And then this idea of polycystic was a problem.

So back when researchers were first looking at the ovaries of people who had this condition, they saw these sort of little fluid filled sacs and it's thought that's where this idea that they were cysts came from.

But actually, they're not cysts.

So the phrase polycystic is a problem because they're not cysts at all.

They're actually essentially kind of paused follicles.

So in the ovary, in healthy women without PCOS, every month your follicles start to develop and then one eventually matures and it releases an egg.

But in people with PCOS or PMOS, as it's now known, some of these follicles become paused.

And that's what you're seeing, those little sacs.

So in a way, I think it's worth looking at...

so the condition as a whole, and its new name really reflects the cause there, polyendocrine.

So this is about the endocrine system or the hormonal system.