5 Truths I Wish Everyone Knew About Endometriosis
Why raising awareness on the illness is not enough
Every time I see any media coverage about endometriosis, I hold my breath and brace myself for what I’m about to read or hear. It’s especially intense in March, which is Endometriosis Awareness Month worldwide, when I can’t help but feel like a lot of the media coverage is just meant to check off the “awareness month” box in their programming with whatever “expert” is available to drop a few quick hints about the disease, accuracy be damned!
This March, for example, I watched in enraged disbelief that a national news channel had Endometriosis Awareness Month as the prominently displayed title of their segment, though the physician they were interviewing exclusively discussed endometrial cancer — a completely separate and malignant condition (also, fun fact: endometriosis is not the actual endometrium). I wrote to the newsroom and empowered other patient advocates to do the same, but nothing came of our complaints; our messages went unacknowledged, the video was not taken down, the title was not changed, and no further coverage during the month’s three remaining weeks sought to make it right with a deep dive into endometriosis itself.
This kind of reckless coverage and misinformation is rampant in endometriosis care, both in…
