da5nsy, 
I visited the @vagina_museum today to see their exhibition on #endometriosis and I thoroughly recommend it.
Apparently only 54% of those in the UK have heard of the condition, so I'm gonna be doing a lot of shouting about it.
If you can't get to #BethnalGreen to see the exhibition in person, you can see some of it here: https://www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/endometriosis
A photo of a museum caption board which reads: Why do we know so little? Endometriosis is under- funded and under-researched. And it all comes down to this: stigma and discrimination. A huge part of this is the gendering of the disease. Diseases more likely in women and people assigned female at birth are less likely to be funded than ones dominated by men and people assigned male at birth - even when they have a similar level of impact on a person's life. The UK has the largest gender health gap in the G20. There is even less research looking at the impacts of endometriosis on people of colour, queer people and gender diverse people.
A photo of an interactive board where people could place stickers to report the answer to the prompt "how painful was your last period". The options are: - Pain? What pain? - Paracetamol sorted me out - I could go about my day but I didn't feel good about it - Had a cry on my way into work - I couldn't get out of bed or go to work - I passed out. I literally thought I was dying. Literally. There are a large number of stickers in each section, but most in "I could go about my day" and "paracetamol sorted me out".
A photo of a museum board which reads: What next? We are still on the search for a non-invasive diagnostic tool, a cause and a cure. And research is happening all over the world to find these answers. As you wait for your diagnosis, the research may change the landscape, This research must be done in collaboration with patients - too long people with endometriosis have been ignored and dismissed. Whose voices are out there that we should be listening to but aren't? Endometriosis Care is a research group based at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, and the Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health at the University of Oxford. They are working on understanding many of the questions highlighted in this exhibition. The Social Sciences Endometriosis Network is an international network that promotes social, psychology, and humanities research on the condition. It convened in 2023 the world's first academic conference to bring together endometriosis social science and humanities researchers from around the globe alongside researchers, patient advocates, charities and authors. The University of Edinburgh is currently running a clinical trial called ESPriT2. It was found that 90% of patients who underwent surgery for endometriosis reported their pain returning within two years. The trial is trying to determine if surgery is helpful, harmful or of no benefit at all.
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