The last health taboo: why are so many women still suffering with endometriosis?
What health condition affects some 200 million people around the world, yet remains woefully misunderstood, underfunded, and barely addressed in medical-school curricula?
The answer to that riddle is no less of a riddle: endometriosis is a disease that the World Health Organization estimates affects one in 10 women and girls globally. And yet the National Institute of Health allocates a whopping .038% of its research resources to the disorder.
Endometriosis, which involves tissue similar to uterine tissue growing elsewhere in the body, has myriad symptoms, including GI distress, migraines, discomfort during sex and abdominal pain that can range from debilitating to excruciating. Countless women miss days of school and work, lose their jobs, and suffer, as has Amy Schumer, who called it . The two elected to undergo hysterectomies to alleviate their pain. Despite efforts to raise awareness, it persists as an underground topic, and many doctors are ill equipped to help those afflicted or don’t even believe their patients.
