$re = '/(?<=, |^)\b([()\w\s]+),\s(.*?)((?: and)?(?=\1))|\w=\(.*?\)/m';
$str = 'height(female), weight, BMI, and BMI.
height(female), weight, whatever it is, and whatever it is.
height(female), weight, age, height(female), and BMI.
weight, weight.';
$subst = "$2";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php