Virtually every woman is affected by a gynecological condition or infection at some time during her life. In the United States, more than 1 million women experience an episode of acute PID each year, with teenagers having the highest rate of infection. It is estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of American women or 5.5 million women and girls of childbearing age have endometriosis. This makes endometriosis more common than AIDS and more common than cancer.
Endometriosis is one of the three major causes of female infertility.
Nearly 15 percent, or one in seven, American women between the ages of 18 and 50 years old suffer from chronic pelvic pain. Chlamydia, a sexually transmitted vaginal infection, is the most frequently reported infectious disease in the United States. Cancer of the endometrium is the most common cancer of the female reproductive organs. It is estimated that 36,100 new cases of endometrial cancer will be diagnosed in the US in 2000, and about 6,500 women will die from endometrial cancer. Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer among women.