Many Canadian patients face difficulties receiving diagnoses regarding female-related health conditions like endometriosis.
Endometriosis is a condition that causes tissue to grow on the outside of the uterus. Like a menstrual cycle that causes the tissue to shed each month, the tissue that grows outside sheds too.
People affected by endometriosis often deal with pelvic pain, painful menstrual cramps, heavy or prolonged menstrual cycles, nausea, bloating, migraines, back pain, pain during intercourse, and infertility.
EndoAct Canada is an organization made to help improve the lives of people with endometriosis, co-founded by The Endometriosis Network Canada, Canada’s only registered charity for raising awareness of endometriosis.
According to EndoAct Canada, the average delay to receive a diagnosis is 5.4 years, and for some, it can take up to 20 years.
Confirming a diagnosis for endometriosis typically requires a surgical procedure called a laparoscopy, which is a type of exploratory surgery.
For Brenna Gosse, 18, it took her seven years to receive a diagnosis after being told by her doctors that she was too young to have endometriosis.
Gosse was experiencing symptoms such as a painful menstrual cycle, bladder pain, extreme fatigue, and nausea.
“I waited a year to see the gynecologist, and she told me it was impossible for me to have endometriosis and to continue taking birth control,” Gosse said.
Gosse said she made several visits to the emergency room in her hometown of Medicine Hat, Alta., while even traveling to an ER in Calgary. Each visit was unsuccessful in knowing what Gosse’s health concerns were.
Gosse was able to see gynecologists in Calgary, but “they told me I was too young for surgery,” Gosse said.
After Gosse saw four different gynecologists and visited the ER multiple times, she decided to travel to the U.S. to the Center for Endometriosis Care.
Her surgeon, Dr. Ken Senirvo, performed a laparoscopy and lesion removal surgery. That is when Gosse received her diagnosis of endometriosis.
“It’s just unfortunate that we can’t get that care in Canada,” Gosse said.
Dr. Madison Young, a family physician who works at Maud Medical Clinic, a women’s clinic that opened in 2021, said it’s all how the message is delivered to the patient.
“I know as a patient how important it is to have a diagnosis,” Dr. Young said. “If I can diagnose you, that’s great, but even if I can’t, I’ll still continue to help you.”
How physicians deliver medical news to the patient is something Dr. Young believes is essential to the patient.
“Saying to them that their ultrasound was normal to us means we’ve ruled out some sinister things, which makes us happy,” Dr. Young said. “But what a patient can sometimes hear is, well, I’m not normal; I’m not feeling normal.”
Dr. Young said that acknowledging the patients’ feelings and empathizing with them is an important aspect of being a physician.
“We have to make sure as clinicians that we’re satisfying our medical-legal needs and checkboxes, but still not forgetting that even if we can’t find something wrong, that there is a patient sitting in front of us suffering,” Dr. Young said.
