According to Dr. Neha Gupta, Additional Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Fortis Hospital, Noida, though it is estimated that 42 million women in India have endometriosis, many remain undiagnosed due to overlapping symptoms.”Let’s start by talking about it openly. Challenging the taboos surrounding women’s bodies can encourage more women to seek help,” she said, adding that with new research can only hope to get better solutions.Termed the missed disease, owing to its unknown cause and long delays in diagnosis, endometriosis affects 10% of women of reproductive age globally.Still, standards of care are unacceptably poor, the report said. Dr. Aruna Kalra, Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, said about 30-50% of women with endometriosis may have infertility issues.The report said menstrual pain, in particular, is widely normalised, which -along with taboos on discussing periods and other symptoms such as painful intercourse – means that many women delay seeking medical intervention or never seek it at all. “If they do seek help, symptoms are frequently dismissed or belittled. There are volumes of data to this effect from high-income countries, but data are urgently needed from low-income and middle-income countries too,” the reports said.Dr Kalra said the silence around the topic needs to be broken, adding that support groups and educational programs may open the route for improvement in this area.”Diagnosis could only happen if women talk about their mental well-being.”The Lancet said the condition’s effect on quality of life is substantial, with many women experiencing chronic pain (more than two-thirds of women in the US report missing school or work as a result), along with high levels of comorbid anxiety and depression.
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