Fertil Steril. 2006 Nov;86(5):1296-301.
What's the delay? A qualitative study of women's experiences of reaching a diagnosis of endometriosis.
Ballard K, Lowton K, Wright J.
Postgraduate Medical School, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom. k.ballard@surrey.ac.uk
Objective:
To investigate the reasons women experience delays in the diagnosis of endometriosis and the impact of this.
Design:
A qualitative interview-based study of 32 women, 28 of whom were subsequently diagnosed with endometriosis.
Setting:
Southeast England.
Patients:
Women attending a pelvic pain clinic.
Interventions:
Semistructured interviews.
Main Outcome Measures:
Women's reported experiences of being diagnosed with endometriosis.
Results:
Delays in the diagnosis of endometriosis occur at an individual patient level and a medical level, as both women and family doctors normalize symptoms, symptoms are suppressed through hormones, and nondiscriminatory investigations are relied upon. Women benefited from a diagnosis, because it provided a language in which to discuss their condition, offered possible management strategies to control symptoms, and provided reassurance that symptoms were not due to cancer. Diagnosis also sanctioned women's access to social support and legitimized absences from social and work obligations.
Conclusions:
Although recent guidelines for the management of chronic pelvic pain suggest that diagnostic laparoscopy may be considered a secondary investigation after the failure of therapeutic interventions, the present study highlights the importance of an early diagnosis for women who suffer at physical, emotional, and social levels when they remain undiagnosed.
Please click on the required question.
- Pelvic Pain. Is this a common problem?
- What are the common causes of pelvic pain in women?
- What are the more common gynaecological causes of pelvic pain?
- What are the more common non-gynaecological causes of pelvic pain?
- What are primary and secondary dysmenorrhoea - painful periods?
- What is retrograde menstruation?
- How can dysmenorrhoea - painful periods be treated?
- What are ovarian cysts?
- How do ovarian cysts cause pain?
- How are ovarian cysts diagnosed?
- How are ovarian cysts treated?
- I think I may be pregnant and I have some pelvic pain. What should I do?
- What is pelvic inflammatory disease and how can it be treated?
- Mittelschmertz
- 14 What are fibroids?
- 15 I have fibroids. What difficulties might they cause for me?
- 16 How are fibroids diagnosed?
- 17 How could my fibroids be treated?
- 18 What is endometriosis?
- 19 How prevalent is endometriosis?
- 20 What causes endometriosis?
- 21 How can my endometriosis be treated?
- 22 How can my doctor determine the cause of my pelvic pain?
- 23 What investigations might be recommended by my gynaecologist to investigate my pelvic pain?
- 24 What is laparoscopy?
- 25 What are pelvic adhesions?
- 26 I have chronic pelvic pain. Could this be related to adhesions?
- 27 What is uterine retroversion (retroverted uterus)
- 28 Does a retroverted uterus (backward tilted uterus) cause symptoms?
- 29 How is a retroverted uterus - backward tilted uterus - treated?
- 30 What is pelvic congestion?
- 31 What causes pain associated with sexual intercourse (dyspareunia)
- 32 How can painful sexual intercourse (dyspareunia) be treated?
- 33 What is a pelvic mass?
- 34 What is irritable bowel syndrome?
- 35 How can we find out if I have irritable bowel syndrome?
- 36 Is irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) a common condition?
- 37 What causes IBS?
- 38 What is the pain associated with IBS like?
- 39 Can IBS be mistaken for gynaecological problems?
- 40 How can my IBS be treated?
- 41 What other treatments are available for IBS?
- 42 What can be done to reduce the amount of bowel gas(flatus)
- 43 What is constipation?
- 44 What causes constipation?
- 45 How can constipation be treated?
- 46 How could we summarise the treatments that are available for my pelvic pain?
- 47 Where can I obtain more information?
- 48 Pelvic Pain Support Groups.
- 49 Endometriosis Support Groups.
- 50 IBS Support Groups.
FIBROIDS
ENDOMETRIOSIS
IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME - IBS
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This is the personal website of David A Viniker MD FRCOG, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Whipps Cross University Hospital, London - Specialist Interests - Reproductive Medicine including Infertility, PCOS, PMS, Menopause and HRT.
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