Endometriosis is a medical condition that involves abnormal growths of tissue resembling the endometrium, which is the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus. Those growths, called endometrial lesions, typically form outside the uterus, but can spread to other reproductive organs such as ovaries and fallopian tubes. Endometrial lesions swell and bleed during menstruation, which can cause painful and heavy menstruation, as well as infertility. As of 2021, there is no cure for endometriosis, although medical therapies such as birth control pills and GnRH analogues can treat the painful symptoms of endometriosis. More than eleven percent of women between the ages fifteen and forty-four in the US have endometriosis, which can often decrease a woman’s quality of life due to painful symptoms and impair her reproductive potential.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS is one of the most common reproductive conditions in women, and its symptoms include cystic ovaries, menstrual irregularities, and elevated androgen or male sex hormone levels. During the 1930s, Irving Freiler Stein and Michael Leventhal identified the syndrome and its symptoms. Women who experience symptoms of PCOS may also experience secondary symptoms, including infertility and diabetes. Though estimates vary and the causes of the syndrome are not clear as of 2017, PCOS affects approximately ten percent of women of reproductive age. Women who suspect they have symptoms of PCOS should see a doctor, as early treatment may help prevent long-term implications such as infertility, diabetes, and some types of cancers.

Laparoscopic tubal sterilization is a set of surgical techniques that use laparoscopy to render people with female reproductive systems sterile, or unable to reproduce. In a laparoscopy, a surgeon uses small incisions in the abdomen to feed in a camera or other viewing tool that aids in diagnosing internal medical issues or treating those issues via surgery. To sterilize a patient, the surgeon uses a camera with attached surgical tools to guide the procedure and interfere with the fallopian tubes to stop the passage of an egg. Laparoscopic sterilization was developed as an alternative to surgical sterilization that requires larger incisions to open the abdomen to access the fallopian tubes, which can pose a greater risk of complications. Due to decades of technical development, laparoscopic tubal sterilization allows people with female reproductive systems to control their fertility more safely and less invasively than with other surgical methods.