Endometriosis: how this “social problem” will now be taken care of in France – LCI

“It’s not a women’s problem. It’s a social problem.” In a video message posted on the Elysee’s social networks, Emmanuel Macron launched this Tuesday a “national strategy for the fight against endometriosis”, in the continuity of the “Buzyn Plan” of March 2019.

Objective: to raise awareness, diagnose and take charge of this disease, on which knowledge remains incomplete, but which affects more than two million French women and is the leading cause of infertility in France.

The government announced last year its intention to develop a national strategy against this disease, entrusting a mission to MEP LaREM Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, a gynecologist who has been very involved in this subject for years. Its report was made Tuesday at the Elysee.

The Head of State has retained his main proposals, among which are “the need to guarantee comprehensive, personalized and equitable treatment throughout the country, the strengthening of the training of health professionals, the need to invest in research to advance knowledge of the disease”.

Linked to the presence of cells of uterine origin outside the uterus, which react to hormones during menstrual cycles, endometriosis is sometimes asymptomatic, but can also be manifested by heavy periods and severe pain. Its ignorance leads to a diagnosis delay of seven years on average.

Resources will be released “up to the stakes” for research, said the head of state. Then each region will have to “precisely identify the territorial care channels with at least one referral and expertise center”. “There will be specific national funding”, said the Elysee.

Finally, “we must develop what we could call an ‘endometriosis reflex’ with all audiences: at school, at university, at home, at the office, and even, and above all, I would say, in medical circles “, believes Emmanuel Macron.

The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, “will soon bring together a national steering committee to define the action plan and implement it with representatives of patients and professionals, and of all the ministries and sectors concerned”, he adds. This committee will hold its first meeting in February.