Delay in the diagnosis of endometriosis: a survey of women from the USA and the UK.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional retrospective survey / case series without a comparison control group
PubMed 8671344 · doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.humrep.a019270
What was done
A postal questionnaire was administered to 218 women with surgically confirmed endometriosis recruited through patient self-help groups in the UK and USA to measure the duration from the onset of pain symptoms to formal surgical diagnosis.
What was found
The mean (+/- SD) diagnostic delay was 11.73 +/- 9.05 years for women in the USA and 7.96 +/- 7.92 years for women in the UK (P < 0.01). The clinical stage of disease showed no significant effect on the duration between symptom onset and diagnosis.
Why it matters
This study documents substantial multi-year diagnostic delays for endometriosis in both the US and UK healthcare settings, demonstrating that diagnostic timing was prolonged regardless of disease stage.
Limits
Recruiting solely through self-help groups creates strong selection bias toward patients with more severe, prolonged, or symptomatic disease trajectories. Data relied entirely on retrospective recall of symptom onset dates via postal questionnaire, and the abstract does not report the specific sample size breakdown between countries.
Cited by
- supports In the United States, it takes an average of 9 to 11 years and visits to 5 to 10 doctors for a patient to receive an endometriosis diagnosis.