It’s March, which means we’re back again to recognize Endometriosis Awareness Month! Endometriosis Awareness Month takes place around the world every March with a mission to raise the profile of endometriosis. Last March we covered the basics – what endometriosis is, who can ‘have’ endometriosis, the basics of why we only have information for certain populations of people with endometriosis and how to get a diagnosis – if you’re interested in checking this out, you can find our blog from last March HERE. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then. Endometriosis continues to be under-recognized, under-funded and stigmatized in healthcare, especially in non-straight women. We still want to change that!
In our previous blog, we encouraged all individuals (regardless of gender or sex) with a suspected or confirmed diagnosis of endometriosis to participate in our study examining resilience and vulnerability processes associated with sexual outcomes. Well, we have some results for you!
Before I begin, I want to give a shout out to everyone who participated – over 500 people of different races, ethnicities, genders, genders, and sexualities from around the world! Thanks, Endo Warriors – this project would not be possible without you!
From the first time point of this study, we were able to identify a lot vulnerability factors that contributed to elevated levels of negative sexual outcomes in our sample. For example, self-focus on one’s body or behaviors during sexual activity and higher levels of depression significantly contributed to increased feelings of frustration, anxiety, and worry about one’s sexual activity.
It’s important to know what makes someone more susceptible to negative sexual outcomes, but we also wanted to know what makes them more resistant to negative sexual outcomes… in other words, what makes them more elastic. We were able to identify several elasticity factors that contributed to reduced levels of negative sexual outcomes in our sample. for example, having a high degree of flexibility in adapting a sexual approach when dealing with an issue in a sexual context and having high levels of confidence in performing activities despite pain both led to fewer feelings of frustration, anxiety and worry about sex activity.
You might be wondering, what are the other factors that contributed to the sexual results? How will these results change over time? Don’t worry, more results are coming! In the meantime, check out some of the poster presentations created from the results of this study. And don’t forget, more studies looking at endometriosis and other pain conditions are being created by our lab and we’ll share them with you! For example, we’ll also be looking at the endometriosis experiences of those who identify as cis men and gender minorities, so stay tuned!
At SexLab, we are passionate about raising awareness and improving the quality of life for those affected by endometriosis and pelvic pain conditions. If you are interested in continuing to contribute to research that enables us to understand more about pain conditions, please follow pelvic pain study, which we will launch soon! This study will look at people of all sexes, genders and sexualities who experience chronic pelvic pain (pain that occurs in the anus, genitals and/or pelvis for at least 3 months). We are interested in learning about many things, such as who you are, your pain and health history, how anxious you may feel about your pain, how you cope with your pain, health experiences related to your pain, how your pain has affected you your relationships and sexuality, what kind of support you get from others in your life and what other health and pain conditions you have. This may seem like a lot of information. However, this type of pain is common and we need to conduct research on it to understand it more – better knowledge can lead to better healthcare!
For all people with chronic pain, we believe in you and your experiences.
For those with endometriosis, during this month and always, we celebrate the obstacles and challenges you have overcome. we recognize the enormous amount of work that still needs to be done. and we hear your voices and raise ours together. We will continue to fight with you, Endo Warriors.
Sam Levang, MSc (she, her, hers)
PhD, Clinical Psychology, Sexual Health Research Laboratory, Queen’s University
