Staging Endometriosis

To continue with my goal of increasing knowledge about endo for Endometriosis Awareness Month, this blog post is going to address the idea of staging endo, or how doctors classify the severity of the disease. If you are newly diagnosed, suspecting you have endo, or have a family member or friend with the illness, you may hear them say “I have stage 3 disease” but may not fully understand what it means to be at each stage. When I was diagnosed in 2009 I had no idea what having endo meant, let alone what having stage 3 endo meant. All I knew was that I had a disease that liked to cause me a lot of pain. The table below taken from http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/gynecology_and_obstetrics/endometriosis/endometriosis.html describes the various stages of the disease and what the surgeon would expect to see within a woman with each level.



Stages of Endometriosis
Stage
Classification
Description

I
Minimal
A few superficial implants

II
Mild
More and slightly deeper implants

III
Moderate
Many deep implants, small endometriomas on one or both ovaries, and some filmy adhesions

IV
Severe
Many deep implants, large endometriomas on one or both ovaries, and many dense adhesions, sometimes with the rectum adhering to the back of the uterus


It is important to remember that the severity of endo doesn’t always coincide with the amount of pain a person may have. For instance, a person with stage one endo may have a lot of pain nearly every day whereas a person with stage three to four endo could have very little pain. Proper medical treatment to stall the advancement of this disease is critical in preserving a woman’s fertility. Infertility, as well as treatment options related to endo will be discussed in upcoming posts.

Again, Staging endometriosis is simply a tool that doctors use in determining how far advanced the disease has become. It does not have a relationship with the amount of pain a woman with this disease may have, and while the more severe diseases often carry a higher likelihood of causing endo, being in the upper stages does not automatically mean that a woman will be infertile.

I hope that this was helpful in letting you know what we’re talking about when we’re talking “endometriosis stages”. For my readers with endo, has your specialist staged your endo? What stage are you at? What crosses your mind when you think of the different stages?

As my goal for this Endometriosis Awareness month is to bring forward more information about the disease to hopefully increase understanding in the public, I would love to hear any questions that you may wish to have discussed in future posts! Please feel free to leave me an e-mail.