Buffalo, NY (WBEN) A major development in women's health is making headlines as the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends the early use of two new non-invasive technologies designed to help diagnose endometriosis sooner – a condition that affects an estimated 1 in 10 women yet often takes years to diagnose. The announcement is generating worldwide interest in how emerging diagnostic tools could transform care for millions of women.
Dr. J'Leise Sosa of Kaleida Health says the two technologies are EndoShore and EndoTest. "Endoshore is a test where they use sensors on the belly, kind of like those sensors you would see on an EKG, and it detects the electrical activity of the muscles in the stomach and the intestines, and endometriosis tends to have a certain electrical pattern. So this detects whether that electrical pattern is present in a woman or not. And then the endo test, it's a saliva test where you check genetics, you check gene. So microRNAs detected, and they use AI to then interpret that microRNA to see whether these exhibit the features seen in endometriosis. So, two different tests each take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete," explains Sosa.
Sosa says endometriosis takes about 10 years to be diagnosed, and what these tests intend to do is to shorten that time to diagnosis, helping women get treatment sooner. "A woman who goes to a primary care doctor, she may not be may not be seeing a gynecologist just yet. She not she may not be seeing a specialist gynecologist who treats endometriosis. So she's seeing her general practitioner, her primary care doctor, with symptoms of abdominal or pelvic pain when she's on her period or not, or urinary symptoms with frequent urination, painful urination, then a primary care physician can offer either of these tests in that scenario and have an earlier diagnosis of endometriosis. Versus what commonly happens is you get worked up for everything else, and then if everything else is negative, then you say, "Well, maybe you have endometriosis. Now you you could have a bit more certainty about that diagnosis of endometriosis, and it's no longer made purely by exclusion," explains Sosa.
Sosa says a quicker diagnosis can lead to a better quality of life for women."Imagine being out of work for a long time. I've had patients who unfortunately lost their job because they've they've exhausted all their time off because they don't have a diagnosis, but they experience these symptoms of the bulletin pain daily, where they can't function. And so now, if you have a diagnosis, one, you could be treated sooner, so you're able to get back to regular daily life and complete your work, spend time with your family. Two, you have a diagnosis where if you do actually need time off now because of whether it's surgical management or you require certain days off because it does sometimes it's so severe it's considered a disability for patients. Then you have a formalized process in which that could be done, and then if you have symptom relief, you're able to be more present with your families and do the work that you get paid to do. So it truly does help to know what the cause of your symptoms are a lot sooner," notes Sosa.
Sosa says endometriosis symptoms can be debilitating. "they're unable to go to work. They're unable to do daily activities. Their energy levels are just completely spent. Their pain may be so severe it causes other symptoms like nausea. It affects their ability to sleep. So when it is a kind of pain that is just not easily treated by you know a morning over-the-counter pain med or afternoon over-the-counter pain med, but you have to be taking pain med quite frequently throughout the day. Then you know that that's a problem, and you should be evaluated by a gynecologist," explains Sosa.
This has not been approved yet in the United States.
10 percent of woman diagnosed, but it can take 10 years to find out
10 percent of woman diagnosed, but it can take 10 years to find out
