{"id":71473,"date":"2024-02-20T08:56:15","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T15:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=71473"},"modified":"2024-02-21T15:39:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T22:39:20","slug":"cecilia-perez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/cecilia-perez\/","title":{"rendered":"Shedding light on endometriosis in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cecilia Perez<\/span><\/b>, a junior bound for medical school, has always been passionate about women\u2019s health. Laboratory work, not so much.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo many pre-med students feel pressure to work in a lab setting with rodents or test tube samples,\u201d Perez said. \u201cI wanted to get into research, but labs aren\u2019t my thing.\u201d
\n<\/span>
\nLast year, the biomedical science major and Flagstaff Medical Center pharmacy technician was thrilled to find another way into research that doesn\u2019t require nitrile gloves or a hazmat suit: The <\/span>All of Us Scholars Program<\/span><\/a>. Established by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, the program aims to increase diversity in biomedical research by pairing students from underrepresented backgrounds with mentors who are experts in their fields.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Selfie<\/a>
Cecilia Perez rarely enjoys working in a laboratory setting\u2014except when she’s mentoring chemistry students as a TA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As an All of Us scholar, Perez was paired with Rachel Everhart, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, in Fall 2023. Under Everhart\u2019s guidance, Perez chose to pursue a research project on an understudied topic: women of color who struggle with endometriosis, a disease that causes severe pelvic pain, heavy bleeding during menstruation and issues becoming pregnant.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been said that endometriosis is a \u2018white woman\u2019s disease,\u2019 because we don\u2019t have a lot of information on how it affects racial and ethnic minorities,\u201d Perez said. \u201cBut the cool thing about All of Us is, it\u2019s about creating and studying data on people who are typically underrepresented in health studies and databases. About 45% of people in the All of Us data workbench are racial and ethnic minorities, people who live below the poverty line, people who are disabled and other underrepresented groups.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the course of the fall and early winter, Perez compared statistics from the All of Us database\u2014which brings together thousands of health records, survey responses, Fitbit numbers and more\u2014with data from a Kaiser Permanente study on endometriosis. The Kaiser study, she said, painted a picture of a United States where few women of color suffer from the disease. The All of Us database, by contrast, demonstrated that many American women of color report experiencing symptoms consistent with endometriosis, but they often struggle to get treatment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI did some research on women with endometriosis who have not gone to the doctor in the last 12 months or aren\u2019t getting proper treatment,\u201d Perez said. \u201cI found out there are so many reasons why: They can\u2019t take time off work, they don\u2019t have childcare, they live in a rural area and aren\u2019t near any medical providers or they\u2019re just nervous to see a provider because they\u2019re not sure how much it will cost.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cecilia<\/a>
Taking on a research project as an All of Us scholar is “a great way to use your knowledge to help other people,” Perez said.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Later this semester, Perez will present her findings on a Zoom call with other All of Us scholars, where she could be selected to represent the program at an upcoming research conference. She\u2019ll also share her findings at the NAU <\/span>Undergraduate symposium<\/span><\/a> on Friday, April 26.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhite women are typically going to the doctor and getting diagnosed more, but that doesn\u2019t mean others aren\u2019t also suffering,\u201d Perez said. \u201cI want to show how important it is for studies to consider all the social and cultural factors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Perez also hopes to use her platform at the symposium to raise awareness of the All of Us program, which opens the door to research opportunities for students in high school, college and graduate school. Perez wishes she\u2019d known about the program earlier; as a high schooler in Corvallis, Oregon, she already had her sights set on medical school and a residency in obstetrics and gynecology.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be scary when you want to get into research, but you don\u2019t know how,\u201d Perez said. \u201cAll of Us makes it so easy: You have someone who\u2019s guiding you, but you also have free rein to focus on any subject you want, whether it\u2019s psychology, disease or mental health. It\u2019s a great way to use your knowledge to help other people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | j<\/a>ill.kimball@nau.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cecilia Perez, a junior bound for medical school, has always been passionate about women\u2019s health. Laboratory work, not so much. \u201cSo many pre-med students feel pressure to work in a lab setting with rodents or test tube samples,\u201d Perez said. \u201cI wanted to get into research, but labs aren\u2019t my thing.\u201d Last year, the biomedical…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":71474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}