TC doctor receives international accolade for endometriosis study
A TURKISH Cypriot scientist has won a prestigious, international award for conducting pioneering work to combat a painful and debilitating disease that affects around one in 10 women around the world.
Dr Nilüfer Rahmioğlu Ramiz received the award for the best scientific project — a campaign against endometriosis, where cells from the uterus grow outside it — at the 65th annual meeting of the Society for Reproductive Investigations in San Diego, US.
The Oxford University senior research assistant told the meeting that despite its prevalence, endometriosis did not receive enough attention to improve its prevention or treatment, which was why she had launched the Cyprus Women’s Health Research (Cohere) project to collect data from women on the island aged between 18 and 55.
Among some 700 woman so far contributing, since mid-January, to the database of information about lifestyle and genetics were eight MPs who completed questionnaires and gave details of their weight, height and blood pressure. Some also provided swab samples to help create a genetic map from details supplied by a planned 1,000 participants.
Dr Ramiz said they aimed to obtain data from 8,000 eventually to create the country’s first data-based women’s health resource, enabling the analysis of genetic and environmental causes of the disease.
She added: “Through this study, we aim to move on to create preventative medicines for those who are at high risk [of endometriosis] and have symptoms but are not yet diagnosed.
“Such preventive measures can help with better management of the disease, which requires early diagnosis to be controllable [and can] otherwise can have a great effect on women’s working and social life because of chronic pain.”