Endometriosis Takes 7 Years to Diagnose

Endometriosis takes almost seven years on average to diagnose. Symptoms can get normalized or dismissed as bad periods. Primary care often misses this, unfortunately. And so, you know, you're right about the problem. Like, it is a significant issue. And the fact that it takes so long to get diagnosed, that's problematic. So, yeah, we'll do a full episode probably this summer specific to the lifter. But, you know, what is endometriosis in the first place? Well, this is tissue that is similar to the uterine lining growing outside of the uterus. It's chronic, it's estrogen responsive, and it's inflammatory. Roughly one in 10 reproductive age women have it. Up to half of women with infertility have it. And up to 90% of women with chronic pelvic pain have it. The 2022 European guideline made a change that a lot of clinicians have not caught up to that lap laparoscopy is no longer required to diagnose it. You can do it with skilled ultrasound or MRI. That's those are sufficient to start medical treatment when imaging matches the clinical picture. That's one of the bigger changes that's happened in the last few years.