Understanding diagnostic delay for endometriosis: A scoping review using the social-ecological framework

Jodie Fryer, Amanda J. Mason‐Jones, Amie Woodward
Health care for women international · 2024 · vol. 46(3) , pp. 335–351 · doi:10.1080/07399332.2024.2413056 · PMID:39418593 · W4403509314
review OA: green CC0 ⤵ 15 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This scoping review synthesized 23 studies on endometriosis diagnostic delay, identifying a global average delay of 6.8 years and highlighting the need for research, clinical, and policy interventions.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This paper is a scoping review synthesizing international primary studies on diagnostic delay in endometriosis, using searches of PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO from inception to September 2023. The review included 23 English-language studies involving pelvic/reproductive conditions with pelvic pain and suspected endometriosis, reporting experiences from over 9,167 participants, and it analyzed delays through a social-ecological framework without performing formal quality appraisal (a stated limitation of scoping review methodology). Across studies, the average reported diagnostic delay was 6.8 years (range 1.5–11.4 years), with substantial country-to-country differences and most studies conducted by researchers in high-income countries. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it focuses on understanding where diagnostic delays occur and why they occur across the healthcare system.

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Abstract

Diagnostic delay for endometriosis is a well-established phenomenon. Despite this, little is known about where in the health care system these delays occur or why they occur. Our review is the first attempt to synthesize and analyze this international evidence. A systematic scoping review with a pre-specified protocol incorporated the literature on diagnostic delay for endometriosis using the social-ecological theoretical framework. Four databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO) were searched from inception to September 2023. The search yielded 403 studies, 23 of which met the inclusion criteria. Most were from high-income country researchers. The average diagnostic delay reported across studies was 6.8 years (range 1.5-11.4 years) but this masked the very wide differences reported between countries. Considering the impact on individuals and the health system, addressing diagnostic delay for endometriosis must remain a priority for researchers, health care providers and policy makers.

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Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis Delayed Diagnosis

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (37)

Cited by (15)

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europepmc
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openalex
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pubmed
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License: CC0 · commercial use OK