Nearly Half Of Women With Endometriosis Struggle With This At Work
Imagine waking up in significant pain and knowing you still have an eight-hour workday ahead of you. Maybe you call out. Maybe you work from home if that's an option. Or, like many people with chronic health conditions, maybe you show up anyway and do your best to push through.
For women with endometriosis, that can be a regular part of working life. The condition affects roughly 1 in 10 women of reproductive age, yet we rarely talk about what managing chronic pain and fatigue can mean for their careers.
A new study1 looked specifically at that burden and found that the impact can extend well beyond a few missed workdays.
Researchers compared more than 1,000 working women
For the study, researchers in Hungary compared 566 women with endometriosis with 447 women without the condition.
Rather than looking only at how many days participants missed work, they used validated questionnaires to capture a more complete picture. That included absenteeism, or time missed entirely, as well as presenteeism, which describes what happens when you show up to work but your health makes it harder to perform at your usual capacity.
Researchers also measured participants' overall "work ability," essentially how capable someone feels of meeting the physical and mental demands of their job given their current health.
Endometriosis was linked to nearly twice as many missed work hours
Women with endometriosis missed an average of 12.7 hours of work every four weeks because of health-related problems, compared with 5.7 hours among women without the condition.
Researchers calculated that those missed hours translated to an estimated €1,757 in lost income per year in Hungary (~2,040 US dollars), roughly equivalent to one month's average salary. And that's only absenteeism. It doesn't account for reduced productivity while at work or additional health care expenses.
The differences in work ability were even harder to ignore. Forty-two percent of women with endometriosis fell into the "poor" work ability category, compared with just 17.9% of women without it. Women with endometriosis also reported significantly more presenteeism.
That's important because endometriosis often affects women during decades when they're building careers, taking on more responsibility, and increasing their earning potential. Missing a few hours here and there may not sound enormous on its own, but over years, the combination of absences, reduced productivity, and difficulty keeping up with work demands can have much bigger implications for career growth and financial security.
Workplaces have a lot of catching up to do
One thing that stood out in this study was how little many workplaces seemed to understand about endometriosis. More than half of the women with the condition, 54%, said their employer had little or no knowledge of it, while only 17% felt their workplace was sufficiently informed.
And when women were asked what would make working with endometriosis easier, the answers weren't particularly complicated. They wanted things like flexible hours, the option to work remotely or hybrid, menstrual leave, and more understanding from their employers.
For a condition that can look very different from one day to the next, that flexibility could make a meaningful difference. If someone wakes up with severe pain or fatigue, being able to work from home or start a few hours later could mean the difference between getting through the workday and having to miss it entirely.
It's also worth remembering that endometriosis can take years to diagnose. Women may be navigating these symptoms at work long before they have an official diagnosis to explain them, which makes having a workplace that can accommodate health needs even more important.
The takeaway
Endometriosis isn't only a reproductive health issue. For many women, it's something they are managing alongside meetings, deadlines, commutes, and careers.
But supporting women with endometriosis isn't simply about helping them feel better at work. Better awareness and more flexible workplaces could help women stay engaged in their careers without having to choose between managing their health and keeping up professionally.
When a condition affects roughly 10% of women of reproductive age, that shouldn't be considered a niche workplace issue. It's part of women's health, and increasingly, part of the conversation about what a healthier workplace actually looks like.