Challenges in diagnosing and managing endometriosis in general practice: A Western Australian qualitative study

Jacqueline Frayne, Talila Milroy, Magdalena Simonis, Alan Lam
Australian journal of general practice · 2023 · vol. 52(8) , pp. 547–555 · doi:10.31128/ajgp-10-22-6579 · PMID:37532442 · W4385514287
article OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 13 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Qualitative interviews with GPs revealed challenges in diagnosing and managing endometriosis, including symptom recognition, patient-centered care, and system-level issues.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

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

This qualitative study interviewed nine general practitioners in Western Australia to explore their knowledge, experiences, and challenges in diagnosing and managing endometriosis in primary care. Across interviews, GPs reported difficulties eliciting symptoms due to multiple and complex presentations, overlapping differentials (e.g., bowel and other pain conditions), and time constraints, alongside variable confidence shaped by clinicians’ experience and awareness, and limited opportunity for screening. They also described barriers to patient-centred care, including cultural and health literacy factors, perceived gender biases, and patients’ choices and priorities, as well as system-level constraints such as unclear diagnostic pathways, access to services, reliance on “learning on the job,” and fragmented care without collaborative care models. The study’s main limitation is its small, purposive sample of nine GPs from Western Australia, so findings may not represent broader practice contexts. Relevance to endometriosis: this paper is centrally about endometriosis—GP perspectives on diagnostic and management challenges that contribute to diagnostic delay in general practice.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To reduce diagnostic delay for women with endometriosis-related symptoms, we need to understand general practitioners' (GPs) perspectives on the challenges they face in diagnosing and managing endometriosis. METHOD: Qualitative interviews were conducted with nine Western Australian GPs to explore their knowledge, experiences and challenges with the diagnosis and management of endometriosis. RESULTS: Three themes were identified as challenges: eliciting symptoms, with subthemes of multiple and complex symptoms, clinician experience and awareness, time constraints and screening opportunities; delivering patient-centred care, with subthemes of cultural factors and health literary, perceived gender biases and women's choices and priorities; and system and service, which included learning on the job, clearer diagnostic pathways, access to services and collaborative care models. DISCUSSION: GPs can be better supported in dealing with endometriosis through raising awareness and education; recognition of endometriosis as a complex chronic condition; and the development of pragmatic guidelines, with increased access to local centres for excellent and collaborative care.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis General Practice General Practice General Practice General Practice General Practice

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 (26)

Cited by (14)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-11T06:19:48.454388+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-06-11T06:18:29.259686+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK