Nearly every American woman confronts a gynecologic problem at some time in her life, ranging from common yeast infections to uterine fibroids.
- About 11 to 13 percent of women of childbearing age complain of heavy or frequent periods. By the time women reach age 36 to 40, about one in four have this problem.
- An estimated 5 million women of childbearing age have endometriosis, which can cause pelvic pain, heavy bleeding and infertility.
- Pelvic organ prolapse is a leading cause of urinary incontinence, although many women don’t have any symptoms. Each year, doctors perform about 200,000 surgeries to fix pelvic organ prolapse.
- About 75 percent of women have at least one yeast infection during their lives, and 20 percent of women experience at least one urinary tract infection. Those conditions are the most common gynecologic issues that affect younger women.
- Untreated cervical dysplasia, the abnormal growth of cervical cells, develops into cervical cancer in about 30 to 50 percent of cases.
- By age 50, about 70 percent of Caucasian women and 80 percent of African American women develop uterine fibroids.
