By Karen Tang, General Member
This month’s theme for the YCRH’s social media and blogs surrounds the topic of Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights (SRHR).
What is Endometriosis (Endo)?
Endometriosis is a chronic condition often linked with severe, life-impacting pain, particularly during menstruation. In fact, individuals with endometriosis often have a decreased quality of life given that the extreme pain can lead to avoidance of intercourse, and interruptions to daily life such as skipping school and/or work. Endo occurs when tissue like the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus.
Other symptoms can include heavy bleeding during periods, challenges with infertility, bloating and nausea, and fatigue.
The World Health Organization suggests that Endo impacts about 10% of reproductive aged women and girls worldwide, which is around 190 million individuals. Unfortunately, there currently is no cure for Endo, so management of symptoms is key (e.g., hormonal contraceptives, medications).
What is Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)?
The World Health Organization states that Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is a hormonal condition that impacts about 8-13% of women of reproductive age, although oftentimes, it remains undiagnosed.
PCOS symptoms can include hormonal imbalances, irregular periods, and increased levels of androgen, and ovarian cysts. Challenges with excessive hair, acne and oily skin, weight gain, and infertility are often a result of PCOS.
Similar to Endo, PCOS is a chronic condition with no cure. As such, symptoms are often managed through lifestyle changes, medications (e.g., hormonal contraceptives), and fertility treatments.
Impacts on Mental Health
It is important to keep in mind that Endo and PCOS are not simply fertility and/or reproductive health concerns, but are conditions that can have symptoms that negatively impact quality of life, including mental health. Specifically, Endo and PCOS are often linked with higher psychological distress, including anxiety and depression, as well as a negative body image. As such, many of the current treatments for Endo (e.g., medications to reduce pain) and PCOS (e.g., hormonal contraceptives to regulate periods) may help with managing and regulating the hormonal aspects of these conditions, but currently, treatment does not adequately address psychological symptoms of these conditions. As such, it is imperative that we work towards developing treatment and interventions that are supportive and women-centred, in order to improve individual’s quality of life by addressing psychological distress, body image concerns, anxiety, and low mood symptoms.
Not Just a Women’s Health Condition
It can be easy to simply brush off Endo and PCOS as being a “women’s health concern,” but in reality, these health concerns impact all of us (think YCRH’s last month’s theme on global health).
Firstly, infertility and challenges with getting pregnant are often key indicators of Endo and PCOS. Infertility not only impacts the person aiming to get pregnant, but also their partner, and broadly, their loved ones/families.
Additionally, there can be significant social, public health, and economic implications. For example, given the severe pain experienced by those with Endo, this can lead individuals to missing school and/or work, which can have both social (e.g., impacting literacy and education attainment) and economic (e.g., lost wages) impacts. In terms of public health, where the goal is promoting and protecting the health of the entire population, then evidently, we are currently ignoring half of the population. Women’s health conditions are systematically underfunded, under researched, and thus, largely not understood, which may explain why there is currently no cure for either condition.
Research is clearly desperately needed to further understand these conditions, so that we can have treatment that not only helps manage these chronic conditions and the associated mental health symptoms, but with the overall goal of improving the overall quality of life for all women.
Note: *Women is used throughout the blog as a general, all-encompassing term. Please note that Endo and PCOS can impact girls, women, transgender, non-binary and gender diverse people.
Resources and further reading:
“Invisible Women” (Book) by Caroline Criado Perez: https://carolinecriadoperez.com/book/invisible-women/
“Women’s health research lacks funding – these charts show how” (Article) by Kerri Smith https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-023-01475-2/index.html