Women's Reproductive Health

Endometriosis and pelvic pain remain challenging conditions, often characterized by delayed diagnoses, limited treatment options, and inadequate support systems at work, education, and at home. These challenges are exacerbated by the “invisible” nature of the illness, frequently leading to under-recognition, and misunderstanding in the clinical, public, and social domains.

Despite ongoing efforts and an increase in research funding in endometriosis over the past decade, significant barriers to accessing timely and effective medical care continue. These include a lack of awareness and understanding of chronic pelvic pain among healthcare providers and resistance to adopting new diagnostic and treatment methods by both patients and health professionals. Additionally, when those with endometriosis and pelvic pain do seek new and effective treatments and look for better support, they frequently face barriers to clinical trial participation, and concerns surrounding new treatments or diagnostic methods are rarely addressed in the clinical setting. More needs to be done to understand why these barriers exist, so that future initiatives can be designed to address these.

We invite researchers to contribute to a special issue focused on exploring and addressing the barriers to the treatment of endometriosis and pelvic pain. Submissions should highlight existing barriers, and provide specific commentary on how to reduce these barriers. This includes focusing on innovative approaches to improving diagnosis, treatment, and support for individuals with endometriosis and pelvic pain. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• The use of novel methods to uncover issues faced in clinical care or within the endometriosis community to increase uptake of new treatment and diagnostic options. This could include interdisciplinary studies which have a sociological, communicative, economic, political, or feminist lens.
• Strategies for enhancing implementation of new methods to support early diagnosis and increase awareness among healthcare professionals.
• Development and implementation of new diagnostic tools and treatment methods, or novel approaches to endometriosis and pelvic pain care.
• Barriers to clinical trial participation and strategies to overcome them in endometriosis and pelvic pain research.

This special issue aims to collect novel contributions on topics including endometriosis, chronic/persistent pelvic pain of various (or unknown) causes including adenomyosis and vulvodynia.

We invite you to submit proposals for articles for the special issue in the form of a brief abstract.

We encourage a broad range of submissions across a range of research, disciplines, and methodologies including, quantitative, systematic, and qualitative or  mixed-methods approaches. Article types include empirical academic studies, discussion and opinion pieces, case reports, and artistic contributions, such as reflective first person perspectives. In line with the journal’s focus, submissions that adopt a feminist and/or intersectional perspective are strongly encouraged.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please include the following details:

• Author/s names
• Institution
• Email for contact author
• Article type
• Title of your article
• Summary - a brief summary of no more than 300 words

Please submit your proposal to Guest Editor Mike Armour at [email protected] by 30 September 2024.

You will be advised of the suitability of your proposed article for the special issue and when ready to submit will need to select 'Building Bridges' as the article type during the submission process. The deadline for submission of manuscripts is 30 April 2025.

We look forward to your submissions.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article