Here’s a shocking fact: nearly 80 percent of all women will develop uterine fibroids at some point in their lifetime, making them the most common type of benign tumor in the reproductive system—and yet scientists still don’t know what causes them. Many people have fibroids without ever knowing it, but others experience symptoms like heavy menstrual bleeding and cramping. Scientists know that they form in the smooth muscle cells of the uterus, but that’s about it. And it’s not the only reproductive health issue with glaring gaps in our knowledge.
“Basically any tissue of the female reproductive system is understudied,” says Catherine M. Klapperich, a Boston University College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering. Research on women’s anatomy and pain has been underfunded for decades, meaning little is known about what’s happening at the cellular level in women’s bodies and how that impacts their health. So, answering many big questions about women’s health, from fibroids to hormone changes, starts with improving the baseline understanding about how things work—both in healthy people, and when things go wrong. Building up that research is exactly what Klapperich and her colleague, Joyce Y. Wong, are doing.