Page highlights
- There were 8,213 years lived with disability (YLD) due to endometriosis in 2023.
- The disease burden due to endometriosis is highest among females aged 30–34 with a rate of 1.71 YLD per 1,000 females.
- The YLD rate for endometriosis has increased by 40% between 2003 and 2023, after adjusting for differences in age structure over time (0.48 and 0.67 per 1,000 population, respectively).
- Endometriosis is the third leading cause of non-fatal disease burden among females due to reproductive and maternal conditions, after genital prolapse and polycystic ovarian syndrome.
Burden of disease measures the gap between the ideal of living to old age in good health, and the current situation where healthy life is shortened or lost by illness, injury, disability and death. It combines health loss from living with illness and injury (non-fatal burden, or years lived with disability, or YLD) and dying prematurely (fatal burden, or years of life lost, or YLL) to estimate total health loss (total burden, or disability-adjusted life years, or DALY). For endometriosis, there is no burden due to dying prematurely, so only non-fatal burden (YLD) is reported. One YLD is one year of 'healthy life' lost due to illness.
What is the burden of disease due to endometriosis?
The Australian Burden of Disease Study 2023 found that there were 8,213 YLD from endometriosis in Australia, a rate of 0.61 per 1,000 females (AIHW 2023). The disease burden due to endometriosis:
- represents 13% of the non-fatal burden among females due to reproductive and maternal conditions, the third highest burden in this condition group (Figure 10)
- represents 0.51% of the non-fatal burden among females in Australia
- is highest among females aged 30–34 with 1,676 YLD, equivalent to 1.71 YLD per 1,000 females (Figure 10)
- results in endometriosis being the 15th leading cause of non-fatal burden among females aged 30–34.
After adjusting for differences in age structure over time, the YLD rate for endometriosis has increased by 40% between 2003 and 2023. This change may be driven by changes in disease prevalence, community awareness or diagnosis.
