Welcome to March, which is Endometriosis Awareness Month. The first time I heard there was a whole month given over to Endometriosis Awareness, I was sceptical. A month seemed like a bit much – couldn’t we just buy some ribbons, or wristbands or something, and wear them in solidarity for a few days?
Well, solidarity is one thing. But, here’s another: billions of international dollars are lost annually, to economies worldwide, due to endometriosis. Let’s take Australia (because, why not) as an example: endometriosis.australia.org tells us that endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain currently cost the Australian economy $6.5 billion INT per year. The website also tells us that over 75% of this total is due to productivity loss. (So; less than one quarter of it is, in fact, spent on direct healthcare costs. Plus ça change.) Back to the $6.5 billion: this total equates to $17.8 million INT per day, in Australia alone. So, this March, endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain will cost the Australian economy $552.1 million international dollars. 31 days is not enough time to count out all of those dollars, let alone recoup them.
And here’s another thing about those dollars: they have no gender. Yes, folks: endometriosis is everyone’s problem. Every single human being on the planet is worse off because of it.
31 is almost 10% of the number of days in the year. Come to think of it, that does seem fitting, given that approximately 10% of women worldwide are sufferers. Or endo warriors, as some prefer to be called. In my small timespan of experience, in my small corner of the world, I’ve already met several hugely courageous endo warriors. I’ve encountered yet more online. Let’s say I could give, to each endo warrior I’ve encountered, her own Awareness Day. Suddenly, 31 is a painfully inadequate number of days.
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