Vladimira Timkova, Pavol Mikula, Zuzana Katreniakova, Jeremy Howick, Iveta Nagyova
{"title":"Assessing healthcare needs in endometriosis: a scoping review.","authors":"Vladimira Timkova, Pavol Mikula, Zuzana Katreniakova, Jeremy Howick, Iveta Nagyova","doi":"10.1080/08870446.2025.2478154","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Women with endometriosis still have to seek the legitimacy of their disease from the medical community and often feel unheard. This scoping review aims to map the scientific literature to describe barriers and facilitators in the endometriosis management from both patients' and healthcare professionals' (HCPs') perspectives.</p><p><strong>Methods and measures: </strong>We searched the literature published between 2012 and 2023 in the Web of Science, PsychInfo, PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases. A total of 52 eligible studies were identified.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We observed several barriers in the endometriosis management: the perception of patients as challenging and psychosomatic; lack of awareness and medical knowledge; persistent taboos and biases; challenging communication about pain, pregnancy, and infertility; lack of empathy from HCPs; and barriers in diagnostic tools and healthcare accessibility. Key facilitators were HCPs and community awareness; taking patients' symptoms seriously; compassionate communication about fertility and pain; shared decision-making, encouraging patients to seek evidence-based information; and multidisciplinary support.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>We were able to identify concrete barriers and facilitators to successful endometriosis management. Future research is now required to identify optimal ways to implement this evidence, and research the extent to which it applies to more diverse populations in non-Western setting, and to explore the impact of HCP demographic characteristics.</p>","PeriodicalId":20718,"journal":{"name":"Psychology & Health","volume":" ","pages":"1-39"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Psychology & Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2025.2478154","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective: Women with endometriosis still have to seek the legitimacy of their disease from the medical community and often feel unheard. This scoping review aims to map the scientific literature to describe barriers and facilitators in the endometriosis management from both patients' and healthcare professionals' (HCPs') perspectives.
Methods and measures: We searched the literature published between 2012 and 2023 in the Web of Science, PsychInfo, PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases. A total of 52 eligible studies were identified.
Results: We observed several barriers in the endometriosis management: the perception of patients as challenging and psychosomatic; lack of awareness and medical knowledge; persistent taboos and biases; challenging communication about pain, pregnancy, and infertility; lack of empathy from HCPs; and barriers in diagnostic tools and healthcare accessibility. Key facilitators were HCPs and community awareness; taking patients' symptoms seriously; compassionate communication about fertility and pain; shared decision-making, encouraging patients to seek evidence-based information; and multidisciplinary support.
Conclusion: We were able to identify concrete barriers and facilitators to successful endometriosis management. Future research is now required to identify optimal ways to implement this evidence, and research the extent to which it applies to more diverse populations in non-Western setting, and to explore the impact of HCP demographic characteristics.
期刊介绍:
Psychology & Health promotes the study and application of psychological approaches to health and illness. The contents include work on psychological aspects of physical illness, treatment processes and recovery; psychosocial factors in the aetiology of physical illnesses; health attitudes and behaviour, including prevention; the individual-health care system interface particularly communication and psychologically-based interventions. The journal publishes original research, and accepts not only papers describing rigorous empirical work, including meta-analyses, but also those outlining new psychological approaches and interventions in health-related fields.