New hopeful diagnostics tools for endometriosis diagnosis are out. There is a possible blood test and a possible blood test.
This is amazing.
It is early days yet and, of course testing needs to be done but in the research study I have read the blood test can be effective in identifying more than 95% of patients.
Currently, the road to an endometriosis diagnosis is long and the definitive diagnosis is made through laparoscopic surgery.
How long?
As many as 10 years can pass for a woman to be misunderstood, thought to be drug seeking, passed from doctor to doctor, denied the definitive laparoscopic surgery by insurance companies, more pain, more abnormal bleeding, more trips to the ER, more doctors, more insurance denials of care until, exhausted, the woman is finally diagnosed.
How long?
A long fucking time.
It is estimated that the incidence of endometriosis in women is between 6.4% and 11%. And that is just in the US and Canada.
Endometriosis affects women worldwide. Of all age groups, but is more prevalent in childbearing age. And, goodie goodie gumdrops, the incidence is rising and they don’t know why.
But what they don’t tell you in nursing school is that men can be diagnosed with endometriosis too. This is vanishingly rare
But typical of today’s healthcare.
Endometriosis, which has affected millions of women per year for years has only had proper attention paid to it. By proper attention I mean research dollars and even a new understanding of endometriosis as a systemic disease, not unlike an auto-immune disorder after a very small amount of men were impacted. (less than 20)
But a woman is “crazy” for seeking care for debilitating pain.
Right?
Oh, and those 10 years that endometriosis goes undiagnosed? Yeah, those are years where it is growing unchecked. And can impact a woman’s fertility and the health of ALL abdominal organs. Yes, I mean every single one- liver, stomach, pancreas, spleen, uterus, fallopian tubes, colon, small bowel, bladder and ovaries. The endometrium can escape and grow anywhere. And can lead to spots of the endometriosis being burned away by cautery or even laser. I have run the carbon dioxide laser during many laparoscopic endometriosis surgeries.
Did I mention the pain? I remember one of my classmates in 2000 get into a shouting match with our instructor when the instructor tried to tell her she knew nothing about endometriosis. Mic drop, the classmate had been suffering for YEARS and had just received a diagnosis in the late 1990s. I think her knowledge and experience was more up to date than the middle aged male instructor.
I believe this news is hopeful.
I just wish women had been believed and the work had been done years before this.
Think of all the suffering that could have been avoided.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 