Endometriosis most commonly affects the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and tissues of the pelvic wall.
A correct diagnosis is essential to delivering timely and effective treatment of endometriosis.
Your condition would then bestaged(categorized by severity) to direct the appropriate course of treatment.
Verywell / Cindy Chung
Even if the characteristic lesionsare found, endometriosis may be only one of several possible causes.
Moreover, the extensiveness of lesions doesnt necessarily confer the severity of symptoms.
These barriers have led some experts to call for a change in how endometriosis is defined.
Get our printable guide for your next doctor’s appointment to help you ask the right questions.
Self-Checks and At-Home Testing
There are no in-home tests or self-exams able to diagnose endometriosis.
Be sure to raise any concerns you have, no matter how minimal.
This would be followed with apelvic examinationin which you would be asked to disrobe from the waist down.
Get our printable guide for your next doctor’s appointment to help you ask the right questions.
The healthcare provider may also use aspeculumto view the vagina internally.
A pelvic exam is only moderately reliable in making a diagnosis.
A pelvic exam tends to be more reliable when you are symptomatic and/or having your period.
Lab Testing
A lab test, known as cancer antigenmay be used to support a diagnosis.
The CA125 is prone to false positives and false negatives and tends to be most accurate during advanced disease.
The normal value for the CA125 test is anything less than 46 units per milliliter (U/mL).
For this reason, the CA125 is not used to make a definitive diagnosis.
It is typically performed if your symptoms and pelvic examination suggest endometriosis.
The results of these exams can help your doctor decide if more invasive investigations are warranted.
Despite its use in diagnosis, the CA125 is not used to screen for endometriosis or any other disease.
Generally speaking, imaging tests are only of limited use as smaller lesions and adhesions tend to be missed.
The MRI is more accurate than ultrasound but also far more expensive.
It is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of endometriosis, allowing the direct visualization of tissue overgrowth.
The test is performed undergeneral anesthesiain a hospital.
A slender, lighted laparoscope is then inserted to view your reproductive organs on a video monitor.
Once the examination is completed, the laparoscope is removed and the incision stitched.
A laparoscopy can oftentimes be performed on an outpatient basis.
While valuable, however, the test is not without its limitations.
Laparoscopy is required to stage the diseaseendometriosis cannot be staged with a pelvic exam or imaging tests alone.
It is simply used to ensure that the condition is neither undertreated nor overtreated.
Laparoscopy can also be used to surgically treat endometriosis or monitor your response to treatment after surgery.
This is especially true if the results of the preliminary tests are anything less than conclusive.
Your healthcare provider may want to investigate the following conditions (among others).
Even if you don’t have endometriosis, you may have another treatable condition.
As with any health matter, early intervention and treatment is the best route for coping and recovery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, but it is not always a reliable method of making a diagnosis.
About half of women with endometriosis will have a perfectly normal pelvic exam.
Healthcare providers sometimes use a blood test known as CA-125 when diagnosing endometriosis.
The test, however, cannot conclusively determine if a woman has endometriosis.
Sometimes endometriosis can be detected using imaging studies such as ultrasound, MRI, CT scans, or laparoscopy.
Of these, laparoscopy is the most accurate and commonly used to make a diagnosis.
A biopsy performed during laparoscopy is often used to confirm a diagnosis of endometriosis.
No, a Pap smear cannot detect endometriosis.
A Pap smear is used to diagnose cervical cancer and HPV.
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