Increased research funding for endometriosis is urgently needed.

In 2017, we began working with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on a groundbreaking bi-partisan approach to increase endometriosis funding. For the first time in history, we helped secure funding from the Department of Defense’s CDMRP (Congressionally-Directed Medical Research Program). As a result in FY2018, $9.2 million was awarded from the DOD program to multiple endometriosis research grants including genomic research, finding a cause for endo (granted to Australian researchers), non-hormonal medical therapies, and inflammation and malignant transformation of endo.

Since 2019, we have continued our advocacy work on Capitol Hill with Senator Warren and Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah). Due to our collaboration with the Senators, endometriosis was included in the DOD’s CDMRP funding for FY2020 and FY2021, translating into millions more dollars of research into the disease. 

In 2020, we began working with Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer (D-IA), Congresswoman Jenniffer González-Colón (R-PR) and the bi-partisan 31-member House Endometriosis Caucus in an effort to increase funding even further. In July 2020, the House of Representatives approved an amendment introduced by Congresswoman Finkenauer to double federal research funding for endometriosis from $13 million to $26 million from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), which oversees endometriosis research.

“Endometriosis is a public health crisis affecting 200 million people worldwide. This is a human issue, not a partisan issue. Change in endometriosis starts with adequate research and funding.” Shannon Cohn, Endo What?

We continue our work on Capitol Hill with Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA) and the rest of the House Endo Caucus to secure additional funding in the future. For a brief overview of the landscape of endo research, check out the video below of Columbia University Associate Professor Noemie Elhadad, PhD.