The $100 Billion Blind Spot: The Economic Cost of Endometriosis

Endometriosis affects patients’ health, their ability to work and their finances. Employers and insurers bear costs too.

Roughly 190 million women live with endometriosis worldwide. In the United States, estimates put the total annual cost of the disease at about $100 billion, counting treatment, fertility care and the productivity lost while women wait for answers. Delayed diagnosis adds years of care costs and lost work.

The cost of delayed diagnosis

The median time from first symptoms to diagnosis is about seven years. During that wait, patients may miss work, seek emergency care or receive treatment for other suspected conditions.

A 2026 US care-pathway model published in npj Digital Medicine estimates costs along the care pathway. The diagnosis itself carries an estimated incremental cost of $6,829 in 2024 dollars. Treatment adds an estimated $2,896. Productivity loss runs an estimated $1,392 every six months. Lost work adds to the costs patients face beyond medical bills.

With roughly one in ten women of reproductive age affected, these costs reach families, workplaces and insurers across the country.

Twenty years

Marigny deMauriac spent more than 20 years being told her pain was normal. Symptoms began before her first period, by age 14, and her periods turned extremely difficult at 17. At 38 she was diagnosed with endometriosis and adenomyosis, then had two surgeries within a single year: a full hysterectomy, oophorectomy (removal of both of her ovaries), and removal of her fallopian tubes and her cervix, plus rectal surgery to remove an endometrioma in her digestive tract. Before that, she had three colonoscopies, each of which also included removal of lesions from her intestines. Her diagnosis came more than twenty years after her first symptoms.

Patients bear the cost of delayed diagnosis through medical bills, lost income and years of untreated symptoms.

What to do about it

For patients seeking care or support:

1. Document your symptoms. A symptom history can help you discuss your concerns with a provider. Start with the symptom checker and bring the result to your next appointment.

2. Find care and support. The resources directory collects them in one place.

3. Make the economic argument. Tell your lawmakers that endometriosis costs the economy about $100 billion a year and receives a fraction of that in research money. Ask for sustained research funding and coverage for care.