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Screenshot of FDA Drug Label for Orilssa — Screenshot of FDA Drug Label for Orilissa, July 24, 2018

You may have seen news articles and press releases flying around the Internet since yesterday regarding a new drug released to manage Endometriosis pain. I wanted to share this with you because, although I’ve no intention of taking the drug myself, I know that it may help women who suffer. And it may help better educate you on your decision.

I’ve been following it for a while and you can read my thoughts about AbbVie’s SpeakEndo commercials and website, as well as their expedited application for FDA approval, and the track records of other drugs that have done the same. And according to Business Insider, Orilissa may cost approximately $850 per month, or roughly $10,000 per year for prescriptions (I’m assuming those figures are calculated without health insurance). Orilissa is estimated to hit markets for prescriptions in August of this year.

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In all of the many books and webpages I’ve read since my Endometriosis diagnosis, I’ve read the same stats over and over. 1 in 10 people born with a uterus will develop Endometriosis. 176 million affected worldwide. But where did those stats come from? When were they last updated? How do they track it?

After scouring the web, I finally found some of the sources of those figures, but nothing that actually gives me a current number of diagnoses around the world today:

But the term “women” is no longer an accurate reflection regarding the statistics. There are non-binary, transgender, others who do not identify as women, and even cis-men who suffer with Endometriosis.

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