Endometriosis is a very common but, at the same time, still little known disease. And it has a very heavy impact on women's careers, as confirmed by a Finnish study
Endometriosis? It has a big impact on women's careers more than you can ever think. The first general study on the association between endometriosis and work capacity has made clear a terrible fact: endometriosis is associated with poor work capacity even in late fertile age and beyond. Women with endometriosis are forced to ask for more sick days.
To say it is a study conducted on almost 4 thousand women in Finland and published in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, which found that women with endometriosis request on average 10 or more days of sickness more than those who are not. They also said they had to ask for invalidity in many cases.
The good news, so to speak, is that scientists in Finland found no patterns of early retirement or unemployment in the data analysis of the 348 participants with endometriosis. However, let's remember, this research was conducted in a country that already has relatively good health, welfare and pension systems. It is unclear whether this would be the case elsewhere.
To our knowledge, this is the first general population-wide study of the association between endometriosis and work capacity, the authors write.
Endometriosis is a chronic and often painful disease that has no known cause or cure, despite a rich history of possible theories. For several decades, medical books have actually referred to endometriosis as a "career woman disease", a notion that today - thankfully - has been completely disproved.
Read also: Endometriosis: symptoms, causes and when to intervene
Emerging research now suggests that it is not a woman's career path that shapes her disease, but vice versa.
Previous studies
A 2011 analysis carried out in 10 countries found that every woman with endometriosis lost an average of 10,8 hours of work per week, mainly because her symptoms made it much more difficult to complete tasks.
In 2013, a study in the United States found that patients with endometriosis experienced significantly more sick days each year. Even when they were well enough to work, their pain and fatigue made everything much more difficult.
Also, the longer it took a person to get a diagnosis of endo, the more likely his profession was to suffer in the long run.
Retrospective studies suggest that people with endo generally receive a lower annual salary and experience slower wage growth and even in countries like Switzerland, Germany and Austria, which have greater social well-being, women with endometriosis say they may be less successful in profession they most desire because they live with chronic pain and fatigue.
These previous studies almost all agree that endometriosis has a serious impact on a person's working life, but the new Finnish study is the first to examine the impact it has on older female workers.
Read also: From research, a hope for women suffering from endometriosis
A systematic review
Although the symptoms of endometriosis can often subside with age and menopause, the findings suggest that women with endo continue to take substantially more sick days than other women on average at the age of 46.
Fortunately, the disease does not appear to cause unemployment or force early retirement due to a disability, but in any case it results in a broad spectrum of symptoms and severity.
According to the analysis, endometriosis was associated with poor work capacity at the age of 46. In addition, the association between endometriosis and more than 10 days of absenteeism was increased. Between the ages of 46 and 48, women with endometriosis had 10 more days of disability than women without endometriosis, but 20 fewer days of unemployment. There were no differences in early retirement between study groups up to the age of 52.
More research is needed, especially at the population level, in order to quantify the effects of this very common disease, the experts conclude.
For too long, patients with endometriosis have gone unheeded or their discomforts completely rejected. It's time we started paying the attention they deserve.
Source: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecologica Scandinavica
Read also:
- Endometriosis: congenital and environmental causes
- Diet and lifestyle in women with endometriosis
