Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), formerly polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), is one of the commonest endocrine disorders in women of reproductive age, with a global prevalence of 7-12%,1 including gender diverse people with female sexual organs. However, up to 70% of those affected are undiagnosed,2 reflecting persistent gaps in awareness, recognition, and care.3 Given the diagnostic challenges and broader spectrum of symptoms associated with the condition, its name was recently changed from PCOS to PMOS after a 14 year consultation process.4Against the backdrop of systemic failures in the diagnosis and management of PMOS and longstanding concerns raised by stakeholders, the recent report from the all party parliamentary group inquiry into the diagnosis, management, and care of PMOS in the UK provides timely attention to these shortcomings.5 Published with endorsement from Verity, the UK’s national PMOS charity, the report arrives ahead of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)...
Science Journals
An acknowledgement to Elize Massard da Fonseca was omitted in this editorial by Y Tony Yang and colleagues (BMJ 2026;393:s814; doi:10.1136/bmj.s814). The online version has been corrected.
Guidelines should help clinicians and patients make better decisions, but too often they do the opposite. Providing recommendations that are vague, outdated, or inactionable can harm patients by causing confusion and misunderstanding, delaying care, and eroding trust in evidence based medicine.1 Guideline developers must confront this. If recommendations fail to guide actionable decisions at the point of care, they are not just useless-they are harmful.Across specialties, guideline panels produce documents that seem authoritative but lack the precision needed for real world application.23 These recommendations often default to broad, non-committal language: “consider” multicomponent interventions, “offer” behavioural support, or “individualise” treatment without specifying priorities, sequences, or stopping rules. This vagueness leaves clinicians guessing, resulting in patients being underserved and inefficiency in healthcare systems.Recommendations should clearly define eligibility criteria, initial steps, monitoring protocols, escalation pathways, and exit strategies. Without this, guidelines lack utility, and key insights are buried or lost, undermining credibility.Timeliness exacerbates...
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has been renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), an article published in the Lancet has advised.1However, experts warn that care must be taken to introduce the name gradually so as not to confuse patients or detract from efforts to raise awareness about the condition.PCOS is a complex endocrine disorder.2 What exactly triggers the condition is unknown, but it is known to be related to abnormal hormone levels in the body, including high levels of insulin. Symptoms include irregular periods or no periods at all, difficulty getting pregnant, excessive hair growth, and weight gain.3PCOS is very common, affecting one in eight women, although this can vary between countries. Despite PCOS’s prevalence, patients have often reported delays in diagnosis and limited access to treatment. A parliamentary report published last year found that more than a third of women with PCOS had to wait over four years for a...
A documentary detailing Israeli military attacks on hospitals and ambulances in Gaza and the deaths and injuries of Palestinian healthcare workers has won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for current affairs.The gong came despite the film’s initial commissioners, the BBC, controversially dropping it before it could be broadcast. Channel 4 eventually picked up the documentary and broadcast it on 2 July 2025.In his acceptance speech, Ben De Pear, executive producer of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, took aim at the national broadcaster.“Given you dropped our film, will you drop us from the Bafta screening later tonight?” he asked. The 10 May award ceremony in London was broadcast in the UK by the BBC with a two hour delay. An edited version of the speeches appeared in the broadcast.The BBC commissioned Gaza: Doctors Under Attack in 2024 from the independent television production company Basement Films, with a broadcast...
Advertisements for meat products and fossil fuel based industries such as airline and cruise ship travel will be banned in Amsterdam, in a move welcomed by public health experts and environmentalists.The measure, the first for any capital city, came into force on 1 May and applies to advertisements for companies such as KFC and Royal Caribbean appearing in public spaces such as billboards, buses, bus shelters, metro stations, trains, and trams.Anke Bakker, a city councillor with the political party the Party for the Animals, told The BMJ of the difficulties in passing the ban, even in a country committed to reaching net zero by 2050 and reducing meat consumption.“The meat industry sent a lobby letter to all the city councillors with unsubstantiated claims about how healthy meat actually is,” she said. “For us, it had long felt quite hypocritical to have all these environmental policies while still allowing public space...