When I began my research to collect and substantiate the endometriosis figures that I share here, I came across two major problems. The first is that, as incredible as it may seem, there are no consolidated statistics on this disease that affects so many millions of women! The second is that the numbers that exist do not add up and only reveal the extent to which we are dealing with an undervalued and little studied disease:

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• It affects 10% of women of reproductive age, that is, 190 million adolescents and women worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, in an article published on its website in 2023 [4]. 
   

• If we consider the same criteria as the Portuguese National Statistics Institute, women of childbearing age are considered to be those between 15 and 49 years old [5]. According to Pordata data updated on March 17, 2023, there were 2.223.648 women resident in Portugal in 2023. 10% would be 222.365 women in Portugal.

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• However, curiously on the same day, Agência Lusa reported a survey conducted in 2022 by the Portuguese Society of Gynechology which pointed to "the existence in the country of around 350 thousand women with the pathology, one in 10 of childbearing age, the majority between 30 and 35 years old."[6]. 
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• Clearly, the math doesn't add up. If we consider the number of 350 thousand women, then we are not dealing with one in 10 women, but rather 15.74% of women aged 15 to 49. If we consider that menarche in Portugal is getting closer and closer to happen at age 10, then we can include in the concept of "woman of childbearing age" females between 10 and 49 years of age, 2.247.475 people. 350 thousand would then be 15.57%. Still very different from 10%.
   

• Gynechologist Dr. Margarida Martinho, in an article published by Público in 2024, tells us that there are an estimated 228 thousand cases diagnosed in Portugal [7]
   

• Finally, if we take into account the article by gynechologist Dr. António Setúbal on the Hospital da Luz website,  “it is estimated that the incidence of endometriosis in Portugal is around 700,000 cases”, then we are faced with the virtiginous number 31.48% of women of childbearing age. A third of us have endometriosis and over two thirds, 67.43% are not diagnosed [8].

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To give a perspective of the magnitude, whatever number we consider, if you are a woman of childbearing age, it is much more likely that you have endometriosis than diabetes. In 2018, diabetes affected only 1.4% of women aged 20 to 39 [9]. ​
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