reproductive health
Can anyone make endometriosis diagnosis easier?
Sophie Park for STAT
Experts estimate that about one in 10 women suffer from endometriosis, a condition in which tissue usually found inside the uterus grows outside of it, often leading to intense, chronic pelvic pain, fertility problems, and more. Despite the prevalence, it can often take five to 10 years or longer for someone to get a diagnosis.
María Teresa Pérez Zaballos (above) spent five years in pain visiting doctors before she got her own diagnosis for a related endometrial condition. “It was when most people were saying, ‘no, no, no,’ that somebody said it might be endometriosis,” she said. Now, she leads one of at least a dozen biotech companies developing tools to diagnose the condition more easily. Read more from me about when we might see one of these tools hit the market and how it could help people already living with the disease.
chronic health
How chronic conditions interact with birth outcomes
The more chronic conditions that a pregnant person has, the higher the risk that their baby will suffer from severe health complications or die, according to a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers analyzed data on the births of more than one million babies born in Ontario, Canada, between 2012 and 2021, separated into groups by how many chronic conditions their mothers had: none, one, two, or three plus. Risk increased as the number of chronic conditions did, but the greatest risk was among babies whose mothers had complex or cardiometabolic conditions.
“Chronic conditions” is a broad umbrella — the researchers included 22 in total, including alcohol and substance use disorders, asthma, cancer, hypertension, liver disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, HIV, migraine, multiple sclerosis, obesity, and more. To the study authors, the results indicate the importance of counseling before families conceive, monitoring in pregnancy for early signs of complications, and more support for newborns.
