In July 2024, a new long-term study into endometriosis was published. Its results showed that women with endometriosis are four times more likely to develop ovarian cancer than women without the condition.
But that isn’t the only way in which endometriosis affects women’s health.
All information in this article has been reviewed by a qualified, expert practitioner.
Why is an accurate endometriosis diagnosis important?
Causing near-constant discomfort and chronic pain, fatigue and nausea, fertility challenges, and frequently having a detrimental impact on mental health and wellbeing, endometriosis is a severe health condition faced by hundreds of millions of women across the globe, present at a similar rate to asthma, or diabetes.
Endometriosis is a progressive disease: it can develop and mature over time, spreading further into the body, and causing increasingly extensive health complications. Therefore, getting an endometriosis diagnosis as early as possible is vital.
Nevertheless, despite its consequences, and despite its prevalence throughout the population, treatment options for endometriosis remain limited, and the pathway to diagnosis can be even more frustrating.
Too often, women are ignored by the healthcare system and their endometriosis symptoms are dismissed or misdiagnosed. Some women have to wait decades before their condition is finally correctly diagnosed.
It doesn’t have to be this way. As new research emphasises the importance of women’s healthcare, there’s cause for optimism and hope that the endometriosis diagnosis pathway might change for the better.
The traditional pathway to an endometriosis diagnosis
The first step toward endometriosis diagnosis typically involves a visit to a GP. Women presenting symptoms such as chronic pelvic pain, painful periods, and pain during sexual intercourse will be assessed based on their medical history, and a physical examination might be performed.
If initial treatments fail, or symptoms persist, the GP should then refer the patient to a gynecologist. This referral is a crucial step toward obtaining a specialist’s opinion and further diagnostic testing.
Gynecologists may recommend imaging tests such as ultrasound or MRI to identify endometrial implants. However, the gold standard for endometriosis diagnosis is laparoscopy. With a laparoscopy, a small incision is made in your abdomen, and surgeons insert a tube with a camera on to observe if there is evidence of endometrial tissue in or around the organs.
Though minimally invasive and low-risk, laparoscopy is still classified as a major surgery and requires a general anesthetic and a hospital admission.
Once the laparoscopy has been performed, clinicians will be able to confirm the presence of endometriosis, and possibly begin the process of treating the condition either through the prescription of medication, or the removal of endometrial tissue during the laparoscopy.
However, getting to this point is an agonisingly long, arduous, and painful process.
The challenges with the current diagnosis pathway
In the UK, it takes an average of nine years for a woman who has endometriosis to receive a diagnosis. And, over this period of time, half of the women visited their doctors 10 times — or more — before getting their diagnosis.
Those numbers make the flaws with this current system obvious: for women, getting a diagnosis of endometriosis is too difficult, with too many barriers in place at every turn. But, beyond extended waiting times and inconsistent referrals, why is this process so hard?
One of the most significant challenges in diagnosing endometriosis is misdiagnosis or the normalisation of symptoms: many women are told their pain is simply a normal part of menstruation.
Additionally, both patients and healthcare providers often lack sufficient awareness and education about endometriosis. This lack of knowledge contributes to delays in seeking help and receiving an accurate diagnosis. For example, 75% of men — and a substantial proportion of women — don’t know what the condition is.
Improving the diagnosis pathway for endometriosis: what’s the solution?
It’s about time that endometriosis was taken seriously.
Fixing this crisis in women’s healthcare begins with better education on the condition. Improving education about endometriosis and its symptoms across the population, and greater specialised training for GPs and healthcare professionals, could lead to earlier recognition and appropriate referrals, and mean that more women recognise when they should consider seeking a diagnosis for the condition.
But that’s only half the problem.
Given that endometriosis is such a prevalent and serious health condition, the diagnosis pathway needs to be much quicker, more accessible, and less daunting for women. This would allow endometriosis to be identified earlier on. A preventative approach — rather than an extremely slow, reactive one — would mean that women would have access to more effective endometriosis treatment before the condition becomes more severe.
To get to this stage, clinicians need to be equipped with cutting-edge, evidence-based diagnostic methods and tools — tools such as EndoSure.
Research published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine demonstrates how EndoSure, a new diagnostic tool for endometriosis, is an effective, non-invasive alternative means of diagnosis for the condition that doesn’t require a laparoscopy.
EndoSure: a new way forward for endometriosis diagnosis
The EndoSure diagnostic test is a revolutionary step forward, providing a swift, accessible, and highly accurate alternative to existing methods.
Introduced in 2023, EndoSure builds on over two decades of scientific research, beginning with a 1998 discovery by John Mathias, who identified that endometrial tissue releases a substance causing an abnormal reaction in the gastrointestinal tract.
EndoSure employs an Electroviscerogram (EVG) to measure the myoelectrical activity in the abdomen. Electrode pads are placed on the skin, similar in practice to a commonly-used ECG, but instead of monitoring heart activity, the EVG detects a distinctive activity pattern in the abdomen, indicative of endometriosis.
The test identifies a unique biomarker secreted by endometrial tissue by analysing the signals from the GI tract. These signals are interpreted into data that are then compared to a known myoelectric digital fingerprint associated with endometriosis, equipping clinicians with the information they need to make a diagnosis.
Clinical trials have shown that EndoSure is exceptionally accurate, with a 100% match with surgical findings. Every individual with endometriosis was correctly diagnosed, and all women without endometriosis were accurately identified as not having the condition.
The entire EndoSure procedure is rapid, takes less than an hour, is non-invasive and painless, easily performed in an outpatient setting, and has the potential for same-day results. It has the power to be transformative both for women waiting for a diagnosis and for the healthcare system at large.
For women, EndoSure can dramatically reduce the painstaking wait for a diagnosis, and the prolonged pain that goes with it, and allow quicker access to endometriosis treatment. For healthcare systems, it can reduce the need for multiple frontline healthcare visits, imaging tests, and invasive surgeries. And, it creates the possibility for the earlier detection of what is now known to be a significant risk factor for other conditions further down the line, such as ovarian cancer.
EndoSure can save costs, save time, and, most importantly, give women with endometriosis the recognition, respect, and information they deserve.
You can learn more about EndoSure, and book a test with a clinic near you, today.