Women with endometriosis experience long delays and dismissive doctors before a diagnosis

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-09-02 10:55

New Zealand

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An in-depth survey of 50 New Zealand women with endometriosis has revealed a number of shortcomings in the way that this chronic, painful disease is treated and understood. Following long delays and upsetting interactions with medical professionals, the majority of women said they felt relief upon diagnosis, as they were finally able to understand their pain and prove that they weren’t making it up. Authors of the study say that talking to patients is an important but often overlooked tool for understanding how current diagnostic and treatment practices are working. For instance, 80% of women in the study were prescribed hormonal contraception but only 25% of them found it effective, and many experienced negative side effects.

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Research Frontiers, Web page

Journal/
conference: Frontiers in Global Womens Health

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Canterbury

Funder: The Biomolecular Interaction Center provided seed funding to the Engineering Endometriosis Research Program (KE, DM, and RW) at the University of Canterbury in 2021. A portion of this funding was used to provide the study participants with inducements as an appreciation of their time.

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