Women's Health Symptom Survey (WHSS)

The Women's Health Symptom Survey (WHSS) is the first prospective epidemiological study to investigate the predictiblity of endometriosis at a global level. A study of this scale, involving to date 1,884 women from 19 centres in 15 countries, has never been undertaken before.

The WHSS  has prospectively recruited 18-45 year old women having a first laparoscopy across centres in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. The 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 act as controls. 

Using standardised data collection in centres across the world and across diverse health care settings will maximise the opportunity to develop a validated, symptom-based, diagnostic tool.

Preliminary data was presented at FIGO on 6 October 2009, and publication of the results of the study is expected in the first half of 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 WHSS is coordinated through the University of Oxford with Dr Krina Zondervan as the principal investigator and Dr Siva Sivananthan as the study coordinator.

The WHSS has been made possible through a grant from TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc (now Abbott Endocrine Inc).

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