The Global Study of Women’s Health (GSWH) is the first prospective epidemiological study to investigate the impact of and risk-factors for endometriosis in ten countries (16 centres) across the world – a study of this scale has never been undertaken before.
The GSWH recruited 18-45 year old women undergoing laparoscopy across centres in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. These women were asked to complete a questionnaire either on paper or online in their own language prior to their surgery. Those found not to have endometriosis at laparoscopy acted as controls.
By using standardised data collection in centres across the world and across diverse health care settings, we have gained insight into the global impact of endometriosis at both a personal and societal level. A paper describing the methodology, as well as results from the pilot study, was published in March 2009: Nnoaham KE, et al. Multi-center studies of the global impact of endometriosis and the predictive value of associated symptoms. Journal of Endometriosis 2009;1:36-45.
Preliminary data was presented at the FIGO World Congress on Obstetrics and Gynaecology on 6 October 2009, and further data was presented by study coordinator, Dr Kelechi Nnoaham, at the 26th Annual Meeting of ESHRE on 28 June 2010.
The main paper was published in July 2011: Nnoaham et al. Impact of endometriosis on quality of life and work productivity: a multicenter study across ten countries. Fertil Steril 2011;96(2):366-373.
» Key findings from the Global Study of Women’s Health
The GSWH is coordinated through the University of Oxford with Dr Krina Zondervan as the Principal Investigator and Dr Kelechi Nnoaham as the Study Coordinator.
The GSWH Consortium includes
Clinica Medicina da Mulher (Brazil); Fertility Physicians Northern California (USA); University of Barcelona (Spain); Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuero (Italy); University of Leuven (Belgium); University of Ibadan (Nigeria); University of California San Francisco (USA); Brigham and Women’s Hospital (USA); University of Oxford (United Kingdom); Guangdong Provincial Hospital of TCM (China); University of Siena (Italy); Centre de Reprodicao Humana de Campinas (Brazil); National Institutes of Health (USA); CEGYR (Argentina); National Maternity Hospital (Republic of Ireland).
Funding
The GSWH has been made possible through a grant from Bayer Schering Pharma AG, though three of the European centres (Leuven, Oxford and Rome) are part-funded by the EU Public Health Programme through their involvement in the European Network on Endometriosis (ENE).