Research / Endometriosis
Endometriosis affects roughly 1 in 10 women of reproductive age, yet diagnosis has historically required invasive surgery. 2025–2026 brought the first real non-invasive alternatives — and a pattern of logged symptoms is exactly the kind of history that's useful walking into that conversation.
The current gold standard for a definitive endometriosis diagnosis is laparoscopic surgery, which is why average time to diagnosis runs 7–10 years — symptoms overlap with other conditions, and there has historically been no simple test to triage who needs that surgery.
Three independent efforts reached patients in 2025–2026: PromarkerEndo (Proteomics International, published in Human Reproduction), HerResolve (HerAnova Life Sciences, presented at the Endocrine Society's 2026 meeting and published in Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology), and EndomTest (Kephera Diagnostics), commercially launched in the US in July 2025.
In HerResolve's validation data, the test identified 61.5% of endometriosis cases that transvaginal ultrasound and MRI had missed between them — evidence these tests are catching a real gap in imaging-based diagnosis, not just offering a more convenient version of the same information.
None of these tests replace a symptom history — they're triage tools that help a clinician decide who needs further evaluation. A consistent record of pain timing, severity, and its relationship to cycle phase is still what a person brings into that conversation; it's also the kind of pattern a doctor orders one of these tests to investigate.
No — nothing here is diagnostic. Tracking symptom patterns over time can make a conversation with a doctor more concrete, and may be useful alongside one of these newer tests, but a diagnosis itself requires a clinician.
No — endometriosis specifically involves tissue similar to the uterine lining growing outside the uterus. Painful periods are common and have many causes; endometriosis is one specific, underdiagnosed one of them.
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