About the study

Research from Women’s Health Australia shows that an estimated 1 in 9 women under the age of 45 in Australia will be diagnosed with endometriosis. This means that you likely know someone with endometriosis, or you might have endometriosis yourself. Endometriosis (or ‘endo’) is a common disease where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside on other organs causing scarring and pain. Endometriosis may cause painful periods, heavy periods, and pain during sex and when going to the toilet. Some people with endometriosis are so severely affected by the disease that they struggle emotionally and physically with their everyday lives.

Very little is known about what causes endometriosis and who might be most at risk of developing the disease. A person’s genes, their family history, and their health and experiences during childhood and adolescence might tell us a lot about who is most likely to get endometriosis.

In the Genetic variants, Early Life exposures, and Longitudinal Endometriosis symptoms Study (GELLES), we want to find out more about why endometriosis develops, looking at people’s genes and their health across their life, so that endometriosis can be diagnosed earlier and better treatments can be made available. To do this, we need women* with endometriosis and women without endometriosis to take part in our study.

We know that not all people who have periods identify as women. We acknowledge individuals in the transgender community and people who are non-binary.

GELLES is funded by the Medical Research Future Fund. It is a substudy of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH; also known as Women’s Health Australia).