EndoElba is a recently established Elba association that supports women who suffer from Endometriosis, an exclusively female disease, very widespread both in Italy and on the island of Elba, but about which still very little is known. A disease that needs to be diagnosed early on to prevent the patient's health from worsening.
The main objective of the Association is to carry out prevention and raise awareness of the disease among women, and young women in particular, in order to help them recognise its symptoms and take early action, avoiding the serious consequences that endometriosis can have if not identified.
The Association's volunteers have all had different experiences of the disease and its effects on various aspects: work, sport, their sentimental or social lives, all of which have been marked by "Loneliness". This was not because they were alone in facing the disease but because they were unable to make others understand their pain, which was so great and invisible to the eyes of outsiders that even they began to doubt it at times, fearing they were perhaps going crazy.
The main goal of the EndoElba Association is to support and express solidarity with women with Endometriosis who feel alone or think they are not understood. Sharing personal experiences, without shame, helps to raise awareness of Endometriosis and convey the problems it can entail so that women are encouraged to see a doctor or visit a specialist centre that knows how to recognise it, diagnose it early and treat it in a knowledgeable, targeted and appropriate manner.
Another goal of the Association is to raise awareness and knowledge of the disease in the local medical community so that isolation is not an obstacle to guaranteeing the equal right to healthcare.
Like other Italian associations dedicated to Endometriosis, EndoElba aims to guarantee quick and effective diagnostic examinations through the national health service and greater awareness of the number of free services and treatments available: hormone treatments, specialist consultancy, diagnostic exams, lab exams, specific diets, dietary supplements and home treatments which often not everyone can afford. It also campaigns for justified absences from work due to the pain that the disease often causes and for the rights of caregivers who help care for and support sufferers of the disease on a daily basis.
In 2023 the Acqua dell'Elba Foundation contributed by providing both financial support and by organising an important webinar on the subject of endometriosis, open to the general public, in collaboration with the Humanitas per la Ricerca Foundation and Dr. Andrea Busnelli of the Humanitas San Pio X hospital of Milan.
