{"id":56402,"date":"2026-07-11T09:20:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T09:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/endometriosis-tests-would-have-given-me-years-of-my-life-back\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T09:20:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T09:20:57","slug":"endometriosis-tests-would-have-given-me-years-of-my-life-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/endometriosis-tests-would-have-given-me-years-of-my-life-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Endometriosis tests ‘would have given me years of my life back’"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

“I was told that my symptoms were just part of being a woman.” <\/b><\/p>\n

These are words that are likely to be familiar to scores of women who have suffered years of seeking a reason for their extreme pain and heavy periods, before finally being told they have endometriosis. <\/p>\n

For years, the only way to definitively diagnose the condition – where cells similar to those in the lining of the womb grow in other parts of the body, external<\/span><\/a> – was through a surgical procedure. <\/p>\n

But this week it was announced that rapid, non-invasive, endometriosis tests would be made available on the NHS in England and Wales<\/a>. <\/p>\n

For Zoe Armstrong, 35, from Bristol – who lost two pregnancies, including an ectopic pregnancy that became “trapped” due to her endometriosis – a rapid test could have made all the difference. <\/p>\n

She said it was “absolutely amazing” to hear that rapid tests could be made available on the NHS, having been told – like many – that her symptoms “were just part of being a woman”. <\/p>\n

While she might never know for sure, Armstrong, who now has a daughter, said a simpler test for endometriosis might have caught the condition before her pregnancies. <\/p>\n

“There is a little bit of sadness because there are so many people out there who haven’t been diagnosed yet, who think they have [endometriosis] and are in this loop,” she said. <\/p>\n

“Hopefully this will cut their waiting times down.”<\/p>\n

While Armstrong only discovered her endometriosis after an emergency surgery, others with the condition spent years looking for reasons for debilitating pain. <\/p>\n

It took 21 years for Charlotte Hutchings, 36, to get her endometriosis diagnosis, after suffering symptoms from the age of 11. <\/p>\n

Hutchings, who helps lead the Gloucestershire Endometriosis Support Group, said rapid testing could have made a “massive difference” to her life, and potentially could have avoided years of “countless doctors, hospital and A&E visits”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I was told that my symptoms were just part of being a woman.” These are words that are likely to be familiar to scores of women who have suffered years of seeking a reason for their extreme pain and heavy periods, before finally being told they have endometriosis. For years, the only way to definitively […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[11107,283,74,380],"class_list":["post-56402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-endometriosis","tag-life","tag-tests","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56404,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56402\/revisions\/56404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}