Adolescent education

Endometriosis New Zealand is at the international forefront of providing menstrual health and endometriosis education for young women. ENZ surveyed its members in the 1980s and found that:

• Symptom onset was often experienced from the first menstrual period or at some stage during the teen years. 
  
  
• The most common symptoms experienced in the teen years were
  -    period pain often requiring young women to take time off school or work
  -    bowel associated problems (eg diarrhoea with period, bloating, pain on defecation)
  -    associated lower back pain
  -    tiredness
  -    pain with intercourse
  
  
• The pill was the most common first line treatment for teenagers presenting with common symptoms. This was and remains an acceptable and appropriate first line treatment. However, most young women were not advised their symptoms could be related to endometriosis. Had this been the case their treatment choices may have changed then or later
  
  
• Despite earlier presentation of symptoms, diagnosis was often significantly delayed into a woman's 30s or 40s, or until after fertility problems were presented.

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As a result of these findings, through discussion with thousands of members and a growing realisation of the magnitude of endometriosis in young women,  was professionally designed and the programme is organised and run through Endometriosis New Zealand.