Aug 19, 2026 · 24 min · 8 segments
In this week’s episode of the *Xtalks Life Science Podcast*, host Dr. Mohammad Ali, Life Science Writer and Knowledge Translation Specialist at Xtalks, spoke with Dr. Farideh Bischoff, Chief Medical…
Farideh BischoffGuest
Mohammad AliHost
Uh, endometriosis has symptoms and signs that are not unique to endometriosis, so there's a lot of overlap with other abnormal conditions like IBS or even adenomyosis.
And second, the only way to definitively diagnose the condition is through surgery, and therefore, surgery in, in the place where you have a high rate of infertility is often left as the last resort, uh, to definitively determine whether or not a woman has this, uh, condition.
So therefore, um, given the limitations that we have today with existing imaging modalities like ultrasound or, or even MRI, a non-invasive test would really help to address the presence of this disease, where today it goes undetected for many years.
Endometriosis is increasingly being discussed as more than a reproductive condition.
Why are some researchers describing it as a systemic or whole body disease, and how could that broader under- uh, understanding changes, uh, what clinicians look for?
Um, endometriosis, and for decades we've known it's a multifactorial disease, meaning that it's not just driven by genetics, for example.
It really includes, um, hormonal dysfunction as well as, you know, immune dysfunction.
So this multifactorial concept around endometriosis has really generated a, a unanimous, I would say, agreement that the disease is more likely systemic, it's inflammatory based, and in some women can become chronic.
experience.Awesome. Um, so then moving on to the next question, endometriosis can present very differently from one patient to another.
How does that variation make it harder to identify the disease and develop reliable diagnostic tools?
Yes, you hit on a very important, um, uh, characteristic of this condition.
A woman who may be experiencing very severe symptoms, severe pain, severe bleeding, uterine bleeding, may have very mild disease, and in the reverse, a woman who has clinically very mild disease can present with very extensive symptoms, including not just infertility, but, uh, pelvic pain, abnormal uterine bleeding and, and other symptoms that are, again, common to this condition.
So therefore, um, the, the, the typical way of diagnosing is, is, is not really centralized on a single marker, because you can't identify one marker that can detect all of the, um, different criteria that are associated with endometriosis.
We know it's a very complex disease, we know that symptoms don't correlate w- with, uh, the disease severity, and therefore it makes it very difficult to use a single modality.
Uh, endometriosis has symptoms and signs that are not unique to endometriosis, so there's a lot of overlap with other abnormal conditions like IBS or even adenomyosis.
And second, the only way to definitively diagnose the condition is through surgery, and therefore, surgery in, in the place where you have a high rate of infertility is often left as the last resort, uh, to definitively determine whether or not a woman has this, uh, condition.
So therefore, um, given the limitations that we have today with existing imaging modalities like ultrasound or, or even MRI, a non-invasive test would really help to address the presence of this disease, where today it goes undetected for many years.
Endometriosis is increasingly being discussed as more than a reproductive condition.
Why are some researchers describing it as a systemic or whole body disease, and how could that broader under- uh, understanding changes, uh, what clinicians look for?
Um, endometriosis, and for decades we've known it's a multifactorial disease, meaning that it's not just driven by genetics, for example.
It really includes, um, hormonal dysfunction as well as, you know, immune dysfunction.
So this multifactorial concept around endometriosis has really generated a, a unanimous, I would say, agreement that the disease is more likely systemic, it's inflammatory based, and in some women can become chronic.
experience.Awesome. Um, so then moving on to the next question, endometriosis can present very differently from one patient to another.
How does that variation make it harder to identify the disease and develop reliable diagnostic tools?
Yes, you hit on a very important, um, uh, characteristic of this condition.
A woman who may be experiencing very severe symptoms, severe pain, severe bleeding, uterine bleeding, may have very mild disease, and in the reverse, a woman who has clinically very mild disease can present with very extensive symptoms, including not just infertility, but, uh, pelvic pain, abnormal uterine bleeding and, and other symptoms that are, again, common to this condition.
So therefore, um, the, the, the typical way of diagnosing is, is, is not really centralized on a single marker, because you can't identify one marker that can detect all of the, um, different criteria that are associated with endometriosis.
We know it's a very complex disease, we know that symptoms don't correlate w- with, uh, the disease severity, and therefore it makes it very difficult to use a single modality.
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