If you’re suffering from a pelvic health problem – incontinence, fibroids, endometriosis – you don’t need a pile of research to tell you that your whole life is affected.

Physical symptoms – urine leakage, pain, bleeding – are just the start. The physical problems trigger anxiety, embarrassment, and insomnia that fall like a shroud over your entire life.

Stick with us. There’s good news yet to come. But first, a look at what women – like you – said about their overall quality of life.

“Endometriosis has a significant social and psychological impact on the lives of women,” says one analysis of research on the subject.

• Women with endometriosis struggled with a 38% loss of productivity at work.
  • They report a general loss of self-confidence leading to irritability, fatigue, and inability to concentrate.
• Housework, exercise, studying, shopping and caring for children also suffered when you struggle with pain from endometriosis.
• Adding to the emotional pain is often the lack of knowledge of the problem’s cause.  Many women, especially younger ones, are hesitant to see a doctor about endometriosis.

Fibroids are generally found in women aged 30-50. The threat of infertility or miscarriage can cause depression in some women.

• Treatment for fibroids can involve weight gain and oily skin, which could lead to anxiety and depression.

Mature women with incontinence often suffer the anxiety and shame, rather than see a doctor, because they feel “it’s just part of aging.”

• Women suffering from stress incontinence worry about embarrassing leakage in public.
• A woman with urge incontinence is always anxiously on the lookout for bathrooms, in case her bladder screams to her brain, “You gotta go, You gotta go NOW!”

DON’T WAIT. YOU CAN GET HELP.

“Women should seek help for their pelvic health problems – not just to fix the physical issues – but also to return their sense of balance and quality of life,” says McLeod Gynecologist Brad Campbell, MD. “The embarrassment, the anxiety, problems sleeping. All these emotional side effects can disappear when the physical symptoms are treated.”

Find a Gynecologist near you.

Sources include: McLeod Health, Human Reproduction, Fertility & Sterility, International Continence Society, Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association, Endometriosis Foundation of America, World Endometriosis Research Foundation