Women later diagnosed with endometriosis were already filling far more prescriptions for antidepressants and anxiety medication a full decade before their diagnosis, according to a large Danish registry study published in the journal Human Reproduction.
The finding pushes back against a common assumption in gynecology, that the mental health strain seen in patients with endometriosis is mostly a reaction to living with the disease. It suggests the burden begins much earlier, during the years many women spend seeking answers for unexplained pelvic pain.
What the study measured
Researchers at Aarhus University tracked 136,842 women through Danish national health registries, comparing prescription redemptions and psychiatric hospital contacts for women with and without an endometriosis diagnosis.
In the years before diagnosis, women who would later be diagnosed redeemed 29 percent more antidepressant prescriptions and 16 percent more anxiety medication prescriptions than other women.
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After diagnosis the gap widened, not narrowed. Antidepressant use ran 40 percent higher, and anxiety medication use 46 percent higher, in the decade following diagnosis. Psychiatric hospital contacts followed the same pattern.
"What surprised us was how clear and persistent the pattern was, and that the difference did not diminish over time. On the contrary," lead author Marie Josiasen, a PhD student at the Department of Public Health at Aarhus University, told FemTech World.
Why the timing matters
Endometriosis is a condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside it, most often on the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the tissue lining the pelvis. The condition can cause chronic pain, heavy periods and fertility problems, and it is notoriously slow to diagnose.
In the United States, roughly 6.2 percent of women aged 20 to 49 have ever been diagnosed with endometriosis, according to a 2022 to 2023 data brief from the National Center for Health Statistics. Physicians commonly cite a diagnostic delay of four to 11 years between the first symptoms and a formal diagnosis.
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That gap is exactly the window in which the Danish researchers saw the mental health signal rise. Josiasen suggested several possible contributors, including prolonged pain, uncertainty about the cause of symptoms and frustration at not being able to live the life patients want.
Cause or consequence
The study cannot say whether endometriosis directly drives the mental health effects, or whether years of untreated pain and repeated visits to doctors without answers wear women down.
What it does show is that women with endometriosis are more likely to need psychiatric medication and care both before and after diagnosis, a pattern already flagged in earlier research on chronic pain and depression.
Either way, the practical takeaway is the same. If a young woman is being treated for anxiety or depression while also dealing with severe period pain, clinicians may have a reason to consider endometriosis earlier than they typically do.
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Symptoms worth raising with a doctor
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development lists the most common symptoms of endometriosis as painful or debilitating menstrual cramps that may get worse over time, pain during or after sex, pain in the intestine or lower abdomen, painful bowel movements or painful urination during menstrual periods, heavy menstrual periods, premenstrual spotting or bleeding between periods, and problems getting pregnant.
Period pain that stops a woman from working, studying or getting through normal daily life is not something to push through. It is a reason to talk to a gynecologist. Welltica has also covered the early warning signs of endometriosis that patients often live with for years before receiving a diagnosis.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists updated its clinical guidance on endometriosis in early 2026 to shorten that path. The guidance states that a clinical diagnosis based on symptoms and examination is sufficient to start empiric treatment, and that surgical confirmation is no longer required before care can begin.
Josiasen has said her ongoing work will look at what actually helps these women, including the role of hormonal contraception, since prescriptions and psychiatric contacts alone reveal the burden but not the solution.
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This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.