The PCOS Association, aka PCOSA/PCOSupport, is a 501c3 non-profit organization founded in 1998 following the first-ever PCOS Conference held in Baltimore, MD USA in 1997, organized by founder Christine Updegraff (nee Gray-DeZarn). The organization was recognized the following year by Warner Lambert as the first patient support organization that was “born on the Internet”.
The original mission of the PCOS Association was to bring about awareness of PCOS and to provide education and support to its members. This mission was largely filled within the first 12 years of operation, as the first organization to drive national press and television coverage of PCOS in the United States, as well as to deliver a series of educational events in 8 major cities spanning the nation. Its legacy continues today through a new generation of organizations with similar missions, delivering programming and support to millions of women throughout the world.
The present, revised mission of today’s PCOS Association has shifted to provide a source of easily-understood scientific information, to promote access to vetted and scientifically backed curriculum, to connect patients in need with specialists to help them, and to centralize a calendar of all events occurring during September of each year – PCOS Awareness Month.
The mission of the PCOS Association is to empower every woman to achieve resolution of her PCOS condition, through primary ownership of her own healthcare journey, rooted in evidence-based discovery, under expert guidance.
The vision of the PCOS Association is that each participating woman will find a well-equipped toolkit, in her language, at her level of education, that enables her to achieve a successful outcome in the lifetime resolution of her PCOS. This includes easy-to-understand and credible educational programming, expert practitioner referrals, and timely communication as new discoveries emerge.
