Adenomyosis Awareness Month
In Switzerland, around 2.2 million people are affected by a chronic disease. The five most common are cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and musculoskeletal diseases.
Love Letters To My Uterus: A project of the Endometriosis Association Switzerland, gynpoint Praxis für Frauengesundheit and the See-Spital Horgen.
A chronic disease that is less well known is endometriosis. Which is surprising when you consider that it affects an estimated one in ten women. 30 to 50 percent of women who are being treated at a fertility centre have endometriosis. The development of endometriosis and its causes have not yet been conclusively researched; the disease has a chronic and recurring course. The symptoms are numerous, not necessarily cycle-dependent and often lead to absences from work or school. The path to diagnosis takes on average seven to ten years, is exhausting and associated with high health care costs. Such so-called “non-communicable diseases” are not only a burden for patients and their relatives, they also account for about 80 per cent of health care costs.
Melanie Vogt is “1 out of 10”. She is also an Endometriosis Care Nurse in the gynpoint practice for women’s health in Zurich. Together with Dr. med. (bg) Alina Staikov, head of gynpoint, and Dr. med. Plamen Kostov, head physician of the gynaecological clinic See-Spital Horgen, she advises women before, during and after diagnosis.
Supporting their patients in the fight against endometriosis: Alina Staikov, MD (bg), Melanie Vogt and Plamen Kostov, MD.
Photos: Ron Clark
This article was published as part of the NZZ contract supplement “Zukunft Gesundheit”, 10/04/2021
More on the article at:
https://www.nzz.ch/themen-dossiers/zukunft-gesundheit/betroffene-muessen-im-fokus-stehen-ld.1611021