Endometriosis and Sexual Outcomes – the Dance of Vulnerability and Resiliency

It’s March, which means we’re back again to recognize Endometriosis Awareness Month! Endometriosis Awareness Month takes place across the globe every March, with a mission to raise the profile of endometriosis. Last March we covered the basics – what is endometriosis, who can ‘have’ endometriosis, the underpinnings of why we only have information on certain populations of people with endometriosis, and how to receive a diagnosis – if you’re interested in seeing this, you can find our blog from last March HERE. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then. Endometriosis is still underrecognized, underfunded, and stigmatized in the healthcare field, especially in those who are not cisgender women. We still want to change that!

In our previous blog, we encouraged all individuals (regardless of sex or gender) with a suspected or confirmed diagnosis of endometriosis to participate in our study examining resilience and vulnerability processes associated with sexual outcomes. Well, we have some results for you!

Before I begin, I want to give a shout-out to everyone who participated – more than 500 individuals of varying races, ethnocultural backgrounds, sexes, genders, and sexualities from around the world! Thank you, Endo Warriors – this work would not have been possible without you!

From the first time point of this study, we were able to identify several vulnerability factors that contributed to increased levels of negative sexual outcomes in our sample; for example, being self-focused on one’s body or behaviours during sexual activity and higher levels of depression both significantly contributed to increased feelings of frustration, anxiety, and worry regarding one’s sexual activity.

Knowing what makes one more susceptible to negative sexual outcomes is important, but we also wanted to know what makes one more resistant to negative sexual outcomes… in other words, what makes one more resilient. We were able to identify several resilience factors that contributed to decreased levels of negative sexual outcomes in our sample; for example, having a high degree of flexibility in adapting a sexual approach when encountering an issue in a sexual context and having high levels of confidence in performing activities despite experiencing pain, both resulted in less feelings of frustration, anxiety, and worry regarding one’s sexual activity.

You may be wondering, what are the other factors that contributed to sexual outcomes? How will these results change over time? Don’t worry, more results are coming! In the meantime, take a look at a couple of the poster presentations created from the results of this study. And don’t forget, more studies examining endometriosis and other pain conditions are in the process of being created by our lab and shared with you folks! For example, we will also be looking at the experiences of endometriosis in those who identify as cis men and gender minorities, so stay tuned! 

At SexLab, we are passionate about raising awareness and bettering the quality of life of those who are affected by endometriosis and pelvic pain conditions. If you’re interested in continuing to contribute to research which enables us to understand more about pain conditions, keep an eye out for our pelvic pain study, which we will be launching soon! This study will be looking at folks of all genders, sexes, and sexualities who experience chronic pelvic pain (pain experienced in the anal, genital, and/or pelvic region for at least 3 months). We are interested in learning about a number of things, including who you are, your pain and health history, how anxious you may feel about your pain, how you are coping with your pain, your pain-related healthcare experiences, how the pain has affected your relationships and sexuality, what kind of support you receive from others in your life, and what other health and pain conditions you have. This may seem like a lot of information; however, this type of pain is common, and we need to conduct research on it so that we understand it more – better knowledge can lead to better healthcare!

For all individuals with chronic pain, we believe you and your experiences.
For those with endometriosis, during this month and always, we celebrate the barriers and challenges you have overcome; we recognize the immense amount of work that still needs to be done; and we hear your voices and raise ours in unison. We will continue to fight with you, Endo Warriors.

Sam Levang, MSc (she, her, hers)
PhD Student, Clinical Psychology, Sexual Health Research Lab, Queen's University