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An antibody injection could one day help people with endometriosis

The painful gynecological disease affects some 190 million people worldwide

An asian woman curled up in pain on a couch, clutching her stomach.

Women with endometriosis can experience debilitating pelvic pain. Treatment options are limited.

Virojt Changyencham/Moment/Getty Images

By Meghan Rosen

An experimental treatment for endometriosis, a painful gynecological disease that affects some 190 million people worldwide, may one day offer new hope for easing symptoms. 

Monthly antibody injections reversed telltale signs of endometriosis in monkeys, researchers report February 22 in Science Translational Medicine. The antibody targets IL-8, a molecule that whips up inflammation inside the scattered, sometimes bleeding lesions that mark the disease.