Why does endometriosis take so long to diagnose? (easy read)
1 in 10 women in Wales have endometriosis but it can take a long time to diagnose.
Diagnose
Means to check your body and symptoms and and say whether you have a condition.
There are 3 main reasons why it can take such a long time to diagnose endometriosis.
- If you have bad period pain, you or your doctor might think that this is normal. Lots of people think that very bad period pain is normal. Especially if their friends or family also have bad period pain. It is not normal to have very bad period pain that stops you doing the things you would normally do in your life. Like going to work or seeing friends or family.
- There are lots of different symptoms of endometriosis. Sometimes doctors might think that you have a different disease. This can mean that it takes longer to find out if you have endometriosis.
- If you are taking medicine that makes your symptoms feel better it can make getting diagnosed with endometriosis harder. Even though medicine will not make the endometriosis go away, some people decide that they prefer taking medicine to having an operation to find out if they definitely have endometriosis.