PCOS Challenge and Brigham and Women's Hospital Unite Patients, Experts and Policymakers to Accelerate Progress in PCOS/PMOS

BOSTON, Sept. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- PCOS Challenge: The National Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Association and Brigham and Women's Hospital will present PCOS/PMOS Awareness Symposium 2026 - Boston on Saturday, September 19, at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center located at 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston. For many people with PCOS/PMOS, getting answers still means navigating multiple specialists, fragmented information and persistent gaps in diagnosis, treatment and access to care. Under the theme "Accelerating Progress, Expanding Access," the symposium creates a rare opportunity for patients to learn directly from leading PCOS/PMOS experts, Mass General Brigham-based Harvard Medical School faculty, world-leading researchers, patient leaders, and state legislators, while bringing those perspectives together to strengthen care, research, policy, and innovation.

Since 2013, PCOS Challenge symposia have educated thousands of patients and healthcare professionals while creating direct exchange between people living with the condition and those working to improve care and outcomes.

"People with PCOS have spent too long piecing together answers from systems that do not always connect the expertise and resources they need," said Sasha Ottey, Founder and Executive Director of PCOS Challenge. "For more than a decade, we have intentionally built our symposia to change that experience by giving patients direct access to leading experts and bringing patients, clinicians, researchers and decision-makers into the same space. In Boston, we are extending that model to policy, innovation and the next generation of leaders. That is how we accelerate progress, expand access and build lasting capacity for change."

"PCOS/PMOS affects multiple dimensions of health and cannot be fully understood or addressed through any one specialty or perspective," said Skand Shekhar, MD, MHS, Co-Course Director of the symposium and Co-Director of the PMOS Program at the Fish Center for Women's Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Connecting clinical expertise and research with patient experience, policy and the realities that influence access to care helps us ask better questions and make better-informed decisions. This collaboration can move us toward care and research that more fully reflect the needs of people affected by PCOS/PMOS."

The full-day program will address evidence-based approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and management; nutrition; GLP-1s and other medications; metabolic, reproductive, and mental health; care across the lifespan; research and treatment development. The program will also address navigating the ongoing international transition from the name polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) and include a dedicated Spanish-language session.

A separate adolescent program extends the symposium's collaborative model to future leaders. Young people living with PCOS/PMOS and students interested in health, research, policy and innovation will work with experienced professionals in Policy and Innovation Labs focused on substantive PCOS/PMOS challenges. Massachusetts state legislators Sen. Liz Miranda (Second Suffolk District) and Rep. Sam Montaño (15th Suffolk District) will participate alongside PCOS/PMOS experts and patient leaders. PCOS Challenge is building skills and capacity participants can carry into future work across healthcare, research, policy, advocacy and innovation.

For more information and to register, visit https://pcoschallenge.org/symposium/boston.

Media Contact:
William R. Patterson
Director of Public Affairs
PCOS Challenge
(404) 855-7244 

SOURCE PCOS Challenge: The National Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Association