What do Women with Endometriosis Think About the Medical Profession?

Study describes factors associated with a negative perception of the medical profession among women with endometriosis.

Key Points

Highlights:

• Several factors can influence the negative perception of the medical profession in women with endometriosis.

Importance:

• Identifying the factors on the perception of the medical profession would help to develop ways to improve it.

What’s done here:

• Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis on a prospective data registry between December 2013 and June 2017 at a tertiary referral center for pelvic pain and endometriosis.

Key results:

• Factors associated with a negative impression of the medical profession in women with endometriosis are:
  • surgical treatment failure 
  • emergency room use 
  • accessing complementary healthcare

Limitations:

• The findings of this study are based on the analysis of a prospective data registry at a single center and may not reflect the views of all women with endometriosis.

Lay Summary

Failure of surgical treatment, use of the emergency room, and access to complementary healthcare are factors associated with a negative perception of the medical profession in women with endometriosis. 

This is according to a study conducted by researchers in British Columbia and published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada.

Identifying such factors that influence patients’ perception is important because the knowledge can help develop ways to improve this perception.

For the study, researchers led by Dr. Paul J. Yong used a prospective data registry between December 2013 and June 2017. Women’s impression of the medical profession was assessed using the answers they gave to a questionnaire called the Endometriosis Health Profile-30. Only the answers of women who had had a surgical and histological diagnosis of endometriosis were taken into account. The answers were divided into three groups. In the first group there were no negative impressions about the medical profession, while in the second and third groups, there were between one and eight, and between nine and 16 negative impressions respectively. 

Using statistical analyses, the researchers concluded that a negative impression about the medical profession was associated was previous surgery that did not help symptoms, presentation to an emergency room in the past three months, and previous visits to a complementary healthcare provider.

Research Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31864912