The Financial Impact of Uterine Fibroids

CARE About Fibroids has published our forth white paper in a series seeking to highlight the challenges facing women living with fibroids. The paper published today titled, “The Financial Impact of Uterine Fibroids” explores the economic implications of fibroids including the loss of productivity for women that cost the U.S. economy $34 billion annually. 

Uterine fibroids are the most common gynecological condition among women, with lifetime prevalence exceeding 80 percent among Black women and approaching 70 percent among White women. Much less is known regarding the impact of fibroids in the Hispanic, Asian, and other racial and ethnic communities. We know that fibroid costs to the U.S. economy amount to nearly $34 billion annually, including up to $17 billion in lost productivity, but these numbers only tell part of the story.
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Care About Fibroids’ first white paper published in 2019 discussed the high rates of absenteeism, lost productivity, and other hidden costs of uterine fibroids. The paper found that women take on a $4,624 financial burden in the first year of diagnosis. A subsequent discussion of fibroids’ cost burden caught the attention of lawmakers, policy experts, patients, and advocates during the organization’s 2019 Capitol Hill policy briefing and helped drive introduction of the Uterine Fibroids Research and Education Act of 2020.

This report aims to provide a deeper analysis and explanation of the specific factors directly associated with the financial impact on women with fibroids. For additional insight into the financial burden of fibroids among women in the U.S., we will refer to data from a recent survey executed by CARE About Fibroids and its partner, Responsum Health. Responsum Health questioned 50 women through their mobile application and 50 women through the online survey platform, Pollfish. The Responsum polling audience was a community of engaged uterine fibroids patients, while the Pollfish audience was random. The Responsum survey demographics included a majority Black patient group and the Pollfish demographics were majority White. Utilizing these two collection methods, polling data created a sample that attempts to depict the diverse population of women with fibroids. Responsum found insignificant differences in responses between different racial and ethnic groups.

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