Sex, pain & endometriosis: Promoting awareness of a new evidence-based patient-centered website

Co-lead: 

  • Jessica Sutherland
    BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre

Team members: 

  • Heather Noga
    Women's Health Research Institute
  • Kiran Parmar
    UBC
  • Natasha Orr
    UBC
  • Rebecca Coxson
    UBC
  • Sarah Lett
    Mass Velocity
  • Endometriosis Patient Research Advisory Board
    BC Women's Centre for Pelvic Pain & Endometriosis
  • Catherine Allaire
    BC Women's Hospital
  • A. Fuchsia Howard
    UBC

Endometriosis is a debilitating disease characterised by tissue similar to that from inside the uterus growing outside the uterus affecting ~10% of females. Chronic pain, menstrual pain, infertility and painful sex are common, but endometriosis often goes undiagnosed for years due to stigma and normalization of symptoms.   Painful sex can be particularly challenging to discuss with partners and healthcare providers. Imagine fearing intimacy, ridicule, degradation of relationships and an inability to conceive because sex is too painful and having limited resources for validation and trustworthy information.

Over the last 10 years, the Endometriosis Pelvic Pain Laboratory has built a patient-oriented research program with over 70 scholarly publications. In 2018, we established a multidisciplinary team to design an online educational resource. The Sex, Pain & Endometriosis website, launching in Fall 2020, provides a respectful, inviting and visually appealing environment of evidence-based information. The proposed campaign will create awareness of this resource and establish the site within the endometriosis community. Success will be determined by website visits and measured by tracking online engagement and visitor metrics.