Australian Scientists Develop A Simple And Non-Invasive Test To Diagnose Endometriosis, Helping 190 Million Women Worldwide With Their Physical And Reproductive Health
If you suffer from, or know anyone who has a case of endometriosis, you’ll know just how debilitating this health condition can be.
Moreover, you’ll probably know just how difficult it is to get the condition properly identified, diagnosed, and treated.
With 190 million women and teenage girls all around the world suffering from this condition. Endometriosis causes tissue from the womb to grow in other parts of the body and reproductive system, and it is hard to understand why doctors so regularly miss it.
Especially since the symptoms – which include debilitating pain, heavy periods, problems with fertility, and mental health conditions among countless other unpleasant things – can turn a woman’s life upside down.
But on average, according to Australian researchers, it takes an average of seven years for the condition to be diagnosed. That means seven years, through which women are suffering the pain of the condition alongside the frustration of battling with doctors and other medical professionals who can’t seem to find the cause of their ailment.
Thanks to the Perth- and Melbourne-based research team though, this could all be about to change.
In a paper recently published in the medical journal Human Reproduction, the team outlined a new test that they have developed, which can detect not only progressed but also early stages of the disease.
This simple blood test marks a huge step forward in the diagnosis of endometriosis, a condition for which there currently exists no non-invasive test.
Professor Peter Rogers from the University of Melbourne explained the importance of such testing in a statement:
“This breakthrough is an exciting advance in the diagnosis of this debilitating disease. Currently, it takes on average seven years for a woman to receive a diagnosis and during that time she is enduring significant life impacting symptoms, her years of fertility are reducing and the endometriosis is spreading.
These results are a significant step towards solving the critical need for a non-invasive, accurate test that can diagnose endometriosis at an early stage as well as when it is more advanced.”
Until now, endometriosis has only been diagnosed after a complicated and unpleasant series of tests, including ultrasounds and in many cases laparoscopic surgery and biopsies. Given the risk of complications, and the recovery time required after surgery, many doctors and patients could be put off fighting for a diagnosis, instead living in pain as the tissue grew further and their fertility continued to reduce.
The blood test – which was developed by Proteomics International, a medical technology innovator based in Perth, alongside the University of Melbourne and its Royal Women’s Hospital – allowed clinicians to identify signs of endometriosis in the blood, enabling a quick and easy diagnosis.
Dr Richard Lipscome, the Managing Director of Protemics International, explained how blood samples from 805 participants were analysed during the course of their study, allowing doctors to quickly differentiate between those whose blood showed symptoms of the disease and the healthy individuals who were tested.
This rapid diagnosis, the researchers hoped, would cut down that huge time without a diagnosis for women around the world:
“We identified 10 protein biomarkers, or ‘fingerprints’ in the blood, that can be found using our test, in women and girls with endometriosis. The blood test, called PromarkerEndo, could significantly reduce the cost and the amount of time typically spent on trying to solve the cause of symptoms suffered by women and girls over years, often from as early as when they start having periods.”
This early diagnosis, with some women being diagnosed in their early teens, would be a massive step change in the understanding and care of endometriosis patients. Though cures for the disease aren’t yet readily available, with many women managing the condition with birth control, diagnosis is the first step to helping women live healthy lives. Importantly, this also allows them to be fully-informed about their reproductive choices, as the researchers continue:
“Detecting endometriosis at an early stage increases treatment options and may improve a patient’s response to laser ablation or the medical therapies currently used. Among healthy women undergoing fertility treatments there is a three-fold increased incidence of endometriosis.”
It is hoped that this simple test will be a bright step toward the future for women’s reproductive health, an area of medicine for which full understanding is still, sadly, lacking.
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