About 10 percent of women worldwide suffer from endometriosis, a painful and debilitating disease with inadequate treatments. Currently, doctors don’t know what causes the condition, which occurs when endometrial tissue escapes the uterus and forms lesions on other organs. But scientists are working hard to better understand the disease and develop new diagnostic tests and medicines, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.
Because symptoms vary widely and can be mistaken for other conditions, the average woman with endometriosis waits 8 to 10 years for diagnosis, writes Assistant Editor Tien Nguyen. Symptoms include pain, heavy menstruation, nausea, bloating and constipation—often so bad that they cause women to miss school or work. Laparoscopic surgery is required for definitive diagnosis, but even then most treatment options provide little-to-no relief or cause miserable side effects.
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