Evaluating the Relationship Between Worldwide Social Stigma and Endometriosis Diagnosis Delay: Comparing Conservative, Moderate and Progressive Nations

This study evaluated the relationship between social stigma and endometriosis diagnosis delay across different nations as no current studies have focused on this relationship. Endometriosis is a chronic condition when uterine-like tissue grows outside of the uterus. This can create a hormone imbalance that causes a multitude of symptoms that affect everyday quality of life. Endometriosis has one of the longest worldwide diagnosis delay times. In order to evaluate social stigma within nations, a checklist system was conducted to score where nations fell on the conservative, moderate, or progressive scale. Diagnosis delay times were gathered through medical journals and credible sources. The purpose of this study was to investigate if an increase in social stigma had a direct relationship with endometriosis diagnosis delay. Gaining this knowledge would pinpoint on whether or not endometriosis diagnosis delay is or is not directly impacted by social stigma. In the meta-analysis, it was found that the moderate nations included in this meta-analysis had the average lowest diagnosis delay time with 4.5 years. The progressive nations had an average of 6.76 year diagnosis delay time, while the conservative nations had the highest average diagnosis delay with 8.5 years. These results show that as nations go farther on the conservative or progressive scale, diagnosis delay increases for endometriosis. With this information, nations can change their outlooks on women’s healthcare from conservative or progressive views to more moderate views to mitigate the effect that social stigma has on endometriosis diagnosis delay.