EdUMEd Version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
EdUMEd: Improving Understanding and Management of Endometriosis
IRAS ID
285039
Contact name
Andrew Horne
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
10 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Endometriosis is a common disease affecting approximately one in ten women. It is associated with pain and an increased likelihood of infertility. To diagnose endometriosis the only method is keyhole surgery (laparoscopy) which carries the risks of any operation and additionally means that it is difficult to track the way the disease changes. On average there is a delay of between seven to eight years to receive a diagnosis. It is thought that the need for an operation to get a diagnosis is one of the reasons for this delay.
Surgery and hormone therapy are the two main ways of treating endometriosis. Removing endometriosis has a high chance of it coming back, or having ongoing symptoms. Hormonal therapy can lead to side effects. Therefore, there is a need for new treatments for the disease and to see if we can find another way of diagnosing and treating endometriosis without the need to have an operation.
We plan to consent patients who are scheduled to undergo pelvic surgery to answer questions relating to their health and wellbeing. We will also collect information from their surgery, in addition to collecting samples.
Around 50-60% of people who have their endometriosis surgically removed have ongoing or recurring symptoms within five years of their operation. As lots of patients have ongoing symptoms after their surgery, we will ask patients to complete questionnaires over a five-year follow-up period. The questionnaires used for follow-up will be a shortened version of the questionnaires which are given at baseline.
If patients need more pelvic surgery in the future we would like to ask them if they would like to take part in the study again. This will help understand how the disease responds to different ways of treating it and how it progresses.
REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/1298
Date of REC Opinion
25 Jan 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion