Link found between endometriosis and childhood abuse

A new study found a link between childhood physical and sexual abuse and endometriosis, a painful condition that affects approximately 200 million women globally.

Stacey Missmer, adjunct professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-author of the study, noted that it takes an average of seven years from first symptoms to actual diagnosis of endometriosis.

“That’s seven years of suffering, of physicians lacking knowledge of endometriosis and not taking the pain seriously or maybe not having the correct tools for diagnosis, since there are currently no noninvasive diagnostic tests for endometriosis,” Missmer said in a July 17, 2018 article from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

She added, “The amount of money that endometriosis gets in the context of other conditions is very small, considering how common it is and its large impact. Especially when you look at altered life goals, days of work lost, and the impact on the individual and national level.”

Read the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center article: Endometriosis linked to childhood abuse