Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Feb;121(2):140-144.
doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2023.12.020. Epub 2023 Dec 15.

Nonsurgical approaches to the diagnosis and evaluation of endometriosis

Steven L Young  1
Affiliations
Review

Nonsurgical approaches to the diagnosis and evaluation of endometriosis

Steven L Young. Fertil Steril. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

An inability to make the diagnosis of endometriosis or evaluate lesion response to treatment without surgery is a clear impediment to understanding the disease and to developing new therapies. The need is particularly strong for rASRM Stage 1 or 2 disease, since higher stage (rASRM Stage 3 or 4) endometriosis can often be diagnosed by ultrasound or other imaging techniques. Despite promising findings in association studies, no biomarkers or nonsurgical diagnostic or evaluation methods for Stage 1 or Stage 2 endometriosis has yet been clinically validated. Admittedly, validation is difficult, since surgery is required as a gold standard diagnostic method for comparison. This manuscript is aimed as a succinct review of what is known about nonsurgical approaches to detect and assess endometriosis, with an emphasis on Stage 1 and 2.

Keywords: BCL6; Endometriosis diagnosis; miRNA.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests S.L.Y. reports licensed intellectual property to CiceroDX for the ReceptivaDx clinical test; author for an UpToDate chapter on endometriosis and infertility outside the submitted work.

References

    1. Bulun SE, Yilmaz BD, Sison C, Miyazaki K, Bernardi L, Liu S, et al. Endometriosis. Endocr Rev. 2019;40(4):1048–79. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rogers PA, Adamson GD, Al-Jefout M, Becker CM, D’Hooghe TM, Dunselman GA, et al. Research Priorities for Endometriosis. Reprod Sci. 2017;24(2):202–26. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zondervan KT, Becker CM, Koga K, Missmer SA, Taylor RN, Vigano P. Endometriosis. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2018;4(1):9. - PubMed
    1. Simoens S, Dunselman G, Dirksen C, Hummelshoj L, Bokor A, Brandes I, et al. The burden of endometriosis: costs and quality of life of women with endometriosis and treated in referral centres. Hum Reprod. 2012;27(5):1292–9. - PubMed
    1. Matsuzaki S, Canis M, Pouly JL, Rabischong B, Botchorishvili R, Mage G. Relationship between delay of surgical diagnosis and severity of disease in patients with symptomatic deep infiltrating endometriosis. Fertil Steril. 2006;86(5):1314–6; discussion 7. - PubMed

Publication types