Prevalence, Symptomatic Burden, and Diagnosis of Endometriosis in Canada: Cross-Sectional Survey of 30 000 Women

Sukhbir Singh, Sukhbir S. Singh, Ahmed M Soliman, Yasmine Rahal, Catherine Robert, Isabelle Defoy, Paul Nisbet, Nicholas Leyland
Journal of obstetrics and gynaecology Canada : JOGC = Journal d'obstetrique et gynecologie du Canada : JOGC · 2020 · vol. 42(7) , pp. 829–838 · doi:10.1016/j.jogc.2019.10.038 · PMID:32001176 · W3001015279
article OA: hybrid CC0 ⤵ 71 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

A survey of 30,000 Canadian women estimated endometriosis prevalence at 7.0%, with most experiencing symptoms and a significant diagnostic delay associated with a substantial symptomatic burden.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to estimate the prevalence of diagnosis of endometriosis (DxE) in Canada and to assess the symptomatic and diagnostic experience of Canadian women with DxE. METHOD: A cross-sectional, online survey of women in Canada aged 18 to 49 was conducted from December 7, 2018 through January 24, 2019. Survey data were weighted by Canadian population statistics to estimate the prevalence, symptomatic burden, and diagnostic experience of DxE. Logistic regressions were used to assess differences in symptom burden between women with and without DxE. RESULTS: The estimated prevalence of DxE was 7.0% (2004 women of 28 532 women surveyed). Almost half (47.5%) of women with DxE were aged 18 to 29 when they received an endometriosis diagnosis, and 84.1% experienced symptoms before diagnosis. More women with versus without DxE experienced menstrual pelvic pain or cramping (70.3% vs. 50.7%), non-menstrual pelvic pain or cramping (49.5% vs. 18.7%), dyspareunia (52.5% vs. 28.0%), and infertility (22.3% vs. 6.3%). Women with DxE were more likely to report severe menstrual pelvic pain or cramping (odds ratio [OR] 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.5-3.3), non-menstrual pelvic pain or cramping (OR 3.4; 95% CI 2.8-4.2), general abdominal pain (OR 3.0; 95% CI 2.5-3.6), and pelvic pressure (OR 3.0; 95% CI 2.3-3.8). Women with DxE reported an average 5.4-year diagnostic delay, with a 3.1-year delay from onset of symptoms to physician consultation and a 2.3-year delay between physician consultation and diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Self-reported DxE is prevalent among Canadian women and is associated with a substantial symptomatic burden. The 5.4-year diagnostic delay reported here indicates an important unmet need for more timely diagnosis of endometriosis in Canada.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

dysmenorrheaendometriosisdyspareuniainfertility

MeSH descriptors

Abdominal Pain Dysmenorrhea Endometriosis Abdominal Pain Adolescent Adult Canada Canada Cross-Sectional Studies Delayed Diagnosis Dysmenorrhea Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Middle Aged Prevalence Young Adult

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (31)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-13T06:22:48.782012+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:22:17.025735+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK