Known for years as the “career woman’s disease“ based on the idea that women without children develop disease in their reproductive organs, endometriosis is a painful condition thought to affect one in ten women worldwide.
The condition occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus (that is, the endometrium) grows outside the uterus. These tissues implant in and form lesions on organs such as the ovaries, bowel and bladder. The condition can only be definitively diagnosed through surgery and because people often don’t believe the symptoms being reported by women, diagnosis is often delayed.
There’s no cure and the cause of the condition is unknown. Treatments include hormonal therapy to inhibit growth of the disease and surgery to remove the lesions, but these often provide only short-term relief. And they have significant side effects, such as loss of bone density and the formation of scar tissue that can cause organs to fuse together.
