What: The NIH announced the four winners of an endometriosis diagnostics competition. Each winner will get $100,000 and advance to the final phase of the competition, which focuses on how their tools can be made to scale commercially. Two of the winners use menstrual blood to diagnose endometriosis, while the other two use specialized imaging.

Key line: “The disease affects roughly 10 percent of reproductive-aged women and girls worldwide. While symptoms vary between patients, endometriosis can cause debilitating chronic pain, abnormal uterine bleeding, and infertility. Currently, the only way to confirm an endometriosis diagnosis is to find lesions through laparoscopic surgery, which is invasive, requires recovery time, and is not always accessible.”

Source: NIH