What’s the delay? A qualitative study of women’s experiences of reaching a diagnosis of endometriosis

Ballard K, Karen Ballard, Karen Lowton, Jeremy Wright, Wright J
Fertility and sterility · 2006 · vol. 86(5) , pp. 1296–1301 · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2006.04.054 · PMID:17070183 · W2007359876
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This qualitative study explored women's lived experiences and perceptions surrounding the diagnostic delay for endometriosis.

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Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the reasons women experience delays in the diagnosis of endometriosis and the impact of this.DesignA qualitative interview-based study of 32 women, 28 of whom were subsequently diagnosed with endometriosis.SettingSoutheast England.Patient(s)Women attending a pelvic pain clinic.Intervention(s)Semistructured interviews.Main outcome measure(s)Women's reported experiences of being diagnosed with endometriosis.Result(s)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.Conclusion(s)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.

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Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_pain

MeSH descriptors

Attitude to Health Endometriosis Endometriosis Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain Quality of Life Adult Comorbidity Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Interviews as Topic Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain Prevalence Time Factors United Kingdom United Kingdom Women's Health

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.

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