This TEDx Talks video is about the prevalence of endometriosis and how even though it affects around 10 percent of women of childbearing age around the world, very few people have heard of the condition.

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Filmmaker and women’s activist Shannon Cohn talks about the disease which is estimated to affect around 176 million women and girls. She also explains why it can often take up to 10 years before women living with the disease get an accurate diagnosis, and why women’s pain is so often ignored by the medical community.

Cohn explains that women see an average of eight different doctors before they get diagnosed with endometriosis, wasting a lot of time and money in the process. She questions why, with so many women suffering, are there so few answers to endometriosis — why are we no nearer to knowing the cause? why aren’t there better treatments? a cure?

MORE: What’s it like living with endometriosis

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