LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Endometriosis is an incredibly interesting disease” by Abhishaike Mahajan

35 min • 17 juni 2025

Introduction

There are several diseases that are canonically recognized as ‘interesting’, even by laymen. Whether that is in their mechanism of action, their impact on the patient, or something else entirely. It's hard to tell exactly what makes a medical condition interesting, it's a you-know-it-when-you-see-it sort of thing.

One such example is measles. Measles is an unremarkable disease based solely on its clinical progression: fever, malaise, coughing, and a relatively low death rate of 0.2%~. What is astonishing about the disease is its capacity to infect cells of the adaptive immune system (memory B‑ and T-cells). This means that if you do end up surviving measles, you are left with an immune system not dissimilar to one of a just-born infant, entirely naive to polio, diphtheria, pertussis, and every single other infection you received protection against either via vaccines or natural infection. It can take up to 3 [...]

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Outline:

(00:21) Introduction

(02:48) Why is endometriosis interesting?

(04:09) The primary hypothesis of why it exists is not complete

(13:20) It is nearly equivalent to cancer

(20:08) There is no (real) cure

(25:39) There are few diseases on Earth as widespread and underfunded as it is

(32:04) Conclusion

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First published:
June 14th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GicDDmpS4mRnXzic5/endometriosis-is-an-incredibly-interesting-disease

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Standing figure watches farmhouse with orange flames erupting from chimney.
Two diagrams showing problem difficulty versus knowledge gain for scientific careers. Left shows scattered data points, right shows career progression path.
Medical diagram showing retrograde menstruation flow through female reproductive anatomy.
Data table comparing SF-36 Pain and EHP-30 scores across health scenarios.

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