Endometriosis : Detection
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, the information on these pages is gathered from my own experience, books, websites, and other people's experience. I will not be held responsible for any injury resulting from this information. If you have a medical condition, you should seek qualified medical advice and supervision at all times.
How is it detected?
Until recently, if you had painful periods doctors often said "That's normal", or "It's not painful". Many still react like that. If you do have painful periods, the tests you can do are:
Ultrasound
This may have to be an internal ultrasound, which can be extremely painful, however the results rely on the quality of the equipment and the experience of the doctor reading the images, so it may not be very reliable.
MRI
This is rarely used for endometriosis, more often for adenomyosis. This test is not subsidised by Medicare in Australia in any way, so is often prohibitively expensive. As with ultrasounds, decent results rely on the experience of the doctors evaluating the images, but may detect adenomyosis fairly reliably these days.
Laparoscopy
Keyhole surgery, the most reliable method. The diagnosis still depends on the skill of the surgeon if the endometiosis is mild and hard to see.
CA125 blood test
This is actually a cancer indicator that can sometimes be used to detect endometriosis, but is extremely unreliable. Cancer Antigen 125 is released from damaged ovaries, for someone who has never had cancer, the average level is under 35. For someone with cancer, the level would be at least 1500, and for endometriosis may be around 80, but it is a very imprecise test. More often it is used to monitor the endometriosis after diagnosis (to see if it goes up and down on removal, and may indicate when it grows back). More information.
