Endometriosis will one day be diagnosed through a simple blood test.
There are several past and ongoing studies which are trying to identify “markers” which may lead the medical community to diagnose Endometriosis through a blood or tissue sample. Imagine it: a non-invasive, conclusive diagnosis. It’s still a theory…a hope…
Dr. Agarwal and Dr. Foster of San Diego’s Center for Endometriosis Research and Treatment are currently working on a project to see if a “BDNF” blood test will help diagnose Endo. They have high hopes for this project.
The Feinstein Institute of Medical Research has an ongoing study to collect and evaluate DNA and menstrual blood samples of women with, and without, Endometriosis. Their hope is to identify additional markers that separate Endo Sufferers from the general population.
CA-125 has been a long-studied biomarker which may indicate the presence, or recurrence, of Endometriosis. Unfortunately, it has been deemed widely unreliable. It is also used to attempt to diagnose ovarian cancer. Additional studies are ongoing.
With persistent research, perhaps one day Endo will be simply diagnosed with a blood test!
Keep up the good work, Scientific and Medical Community!
Bloomin' Uterus 
Hmm, I was just reading about BDNF yesterday — if, by that, is meant “brain-derived neurotrophic factor”.
I didn’t realize that it might relate to endometriosis (pertaining to the San Diego study you mentioned). I had a look at your provided link but I just got a blank page (might be my browser’s ad-blocker).
It’s important for the brain, memory, cognition — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-derived_neurotrophic_factor
I wonder how measuring it can provide clues regarding endometriosis.
Exercise and niacin can increase it, apparently. The article I read yesterday listed about 20 things to increase it, and about 5 things that decrease it.
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Unfortunately, Dr. Agarwal didn’t identify what “BDNF” actually stood for, but a quick google search of “BDNF Endometriosis” pops up with Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor. 🙂 Let me know if that link is still blank if you look at it again and I’ll dig into it. 🙂 I hate broken links on the blog…
Here’s a quick abstract on PubMed (I know you’re intimately familiar with PubMed…*mwah*) about BDNF & Endo: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28290209
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