Rapid test to diagnose endometriosis gives hope to women in North Yorkshire
The current average waiting time to be diagnosed is 8 years
Researchers have developed a rapid urine test to diagnose women with endometriosis.
Reader in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hull, Dr Barbara Guinn- along with a number clinicians- has identified proteins that are increased in the urine of women suffering with the condition.
Named "EndoTect", it will only take seconds to indicate whether the pain someone is experiencing is down to endometriosis.
At the moment, in the UK, the average waiting time to be diagnosed with the disease is 8 years, and the symptoms are often misdiagnosed or dismissed.
"I couldn't get out of bed because I was in so much pain"
20 year old Mathild Barker from York has been telling us about her five year battle to get a diagnosis: "I went to this A&E department. I was genuinely sobbing to the doctor and he was like 'what is wrong with you, you are not in pain, it's a mental thing' and at this point I was getting really frustrated."
"I was actually put on anti depressants because doctors had said that my pain was normal, and that women go through it every month and that the pain that I was experiencing was normal, and I just knew, I just knew that it wasn't."
"They were like no, women do go through this pain, it's nothing to worry about just take painkillers just sit with a hot water bottle, it got to points where I was in bed in the morning and I could not get out of bed because I was in so much pain."
Mathild eventually had surgery, which is currently the only way to diagnose the disease: "It was the most relief I have ever felt in my life, it was an answer for all that pain that I was just pushed away and what's so sad is the average is eight years for a woman to be diagnosed with endometrioses so I was considered lucky to only have spent five years in that pain."