When Briony May Williams was signed off sick from her teaching job in Bristol in 2013, she did what any sensible person would do: started baking to cope with the stress. Seven months later, she got a diagnosis of polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), a condition that until very recently was known as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

"If I hadn't got that in 2013, I wouldn't have started baking," Williams said. "If I hadn't started baking and carried on baking, I wouldn't have gone on Bake Off five years later and my life wouldn't be what it is now." Since her debut on The Great British Bake Off in 2018, she's built a career as a presenter on BBC One's Morning Live and Escape To The Country, plus Channel 4's Food Unwrapped.

Back in 2013, Williams was put on a treatment regime and returned to work within two months. She now manages symptoms through medication and diet, and is hoping to raise public awareness of PMOS and improve diagnosis rates. The syndrome affects how ovaries work, with three main features: irregular periods, high androgen levels causing excess facial or body hair, and enlarged ovaries with fluid-filled sacs. Any two of these can lead to a diagnosis. Other symptoms include weight gain, difficulty getting pregnant, oily skin, and thinning hair. There's no cure, but symptoms can be treated, and most women with PMOS can get pregnant with treatment.

PCOS was renamed to PMOS on 12 May after concerns that the original term focused too much on "cysts" and ovaries, when the syndrome has a wide range of symptoms. The fluid-filled sacs aren't actually cysts, according to the NHS. The International PCOS Network previously said the name change would improve understanding and help with treatment and diagnoses.

Williams said: "Hopefully lots of people out there who will be suffering with PMOS will get a diagnosis sooner and get more understanding from the healthcare professionals they see, from their family, from their support system." But she also admitted the delay in her diagnosis may have paved the way for her TV successes. "I got quite emotional when I found out [about the name change] because I thought if it had this name back in 2013, would I have got a diagnosis quicker? If [the delay] hadn't have happened, then so many other wonderful things wouldn't have happened," she said.