# some argue that hysteria has always been endometriosis in disguise > Some scholars argue that hysteria, far from being a made-up disease, has always actually been endometriosis in disguise. “If so, then this would constitute one of the most colossal mass misdiagnoses in human history, one that over the centuries has subjected women to murder, madhouses, and lives of unremitting physical, social, and psychological pain,” write the Nezhat brothers, three endometriosis surgeons from Iran, in a 2012 paper. “The number of lives that may have been affected by such centuries-long misdiagnoses is staggering to consider.”[[Vagina Obscura by Rachel E. Gross#^dlhq8]]