Global Study of Women's Health (GSWH)
The Global Study of Women's Health (GSWH) is the first prospective epidemiological study to investigate the impact of and risk-factors for endometriosis in ten countries (16 centres) across the world - a study of this scale has never been undertaken before.
The GSWH recruited 18-45 year old women undergoing laparoscopy across centres in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. These women were asked to complete a questionnaire either on paper or online in their own language prior to their surgery. Those found not to have endometriosis at laparoscopy acted as controls.
By using standardised data collection in centres across the world and across diverse health care settings, we are gaining insight into the global impact of endometriosis at both a personal and societal level
Preliminary data was presented at the FIGO World Congress on Obstestrics and gynaecology on 6 October 2009; further data was presented by study coordinator, Kelechi Nnoaham at the 26th Annual Meeting of ESHRE, and publication of the results of the study is expected in the third quarter of 2010.
Results presented at ESHRE in Rome, 28 June 2010
A paper describing the methodology, as well as results from the pilot study, was published in March 2009:
Nnoaham KE, et al. Multi-center studies of the global impact of endometriosis and the predictive value of associated symptoms. Journal of Endometriosis 2009;1:36-45.
The GSWH is coordinated through the University of Oxford with Dr Krina Zondervan as the principal investigator and Dr Kelechi Nnoaham as the study coordinator.
The GSWH Consortium includes: Clinica Medicina da Mulher (Brazil); Fertility Physicians Northern California (USA); University of Barcelona (Spain); Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuero (Italy); University of Leuven (Belgium); University of Ibadan (Nigeria); University of California San Francisco (USA); Brigham and Women’s Hospital (USA); University of Oxford (United Kingdom); Guangdong Provincial Hospital of TCM (China); University of Siena (Italy); Cetnre de Reprodicao Humana de Campinas (Brazil); National Institutes of Health (USA); CEGYR (Argentina); National Maternity Hospital (Republic of Ireland).
The GSWH has been made possible through a grant from Bayer Schering Pharma AG, though three of the European centres (Leuven, Oxford and Rome) are part-funded by the EU Public Health Programme through their involvement in the European Network on Endometriosis (ENE).
List of all WERF collaborating centres
Clinical trials
