Towards the end of a diagnostic wandering? The fate of women affected by endometriosis could finally change: a French start-up named Ziwig presented this week a saliva test promising to diagnose endometriosis in… ten days. This would be a revolution for people affected by this gynecological disease which affects on average one in ten women in France.
Endometriosis is characterized by a chronic, inflammatory and a priori incurable condition. Painful menstruation, bleeding, digestive disorders, chronic fatigue, lumbar pain… The suffering associated with endometriosis are numerous and the disease is all too often difficult to diagnose. Currently, it takes an average of eight years to detect it. These pains are linked to the development of the uterine lining, the endometrium, outside the uterus, which thus affects other organs.
The Ziwig company has evaluated this test on 200 women in several French public hospitals, including the hospital of Angers, and its designers put forward an almost 100% reliable result. The device comes in the form of a kit with a plastic tube inside, in which it is enough to spit. Once closed, the test is sent to the laboratory which then establishes a DNA sequencing of the patient, which should make it possible to detect whether or not she has endometriosis.
On the side of health professionals and doctors, it is estimated that catching the disease earlier could prevent some women from becoming infertile. “Endometriosis evolves. She’s not moving in the right direction. recognizes Philippe Descamps, from Angers hospital, to France Inter. She is getting worse. Thanks to this saliva test, we will be able to stop the progression of the disease, operate on women earlier, for example, and not operate on others who have been operated on until now to find out if there was a endometriosis.”
“Gone are the days when we take women for crazy”
On Friday evening, on her Instagram account, singer Imany welcomed the news. Committed to the Endomind association, which mobilizes to improve the care of patients and encourage research around endometriosis, the singer suffering from the disease called for “putting the pressure on to take women’s suffering seriously”.
“Gone are the days when we take women for crazy. Gone are the days of MRIs, diagnostic surgeries, gone are the misogynistic prejudices about your so-called pain! This is the start of something huge! Ten years ago no one even knew how to pronounce this disease and today thanks to this test it can be diagnosed quickly and non-invasively.“, she writes.
The test is not yet available for sale. Its inventors hope to obtain reimbursement from Social Security. The start-up which is discussing with the health authorities also wishes to improve its tool and hopes to soon be able to indicate the stage of the evolution of the disease. So there is still work to be done.
On January 11, nearly five years after coming to power, Emmanuel Macron announced with great fanfare a “national strategyto fight against endometriosis. An announcement that was made without revealing either budget or timetable, and by throwing a crucial subject into oblivion: the inclusion of this disease on the list of long-term conditions.
A measure, however, claimed for ages by associations such as Endomind. This measure would allow the 2 to 4 million women suffering from this pathology to ask to have their care covered at 100%, being sure of achieving it. Currently, according to work by post-doctoral researcher Alice Romerio, published in November 2020, 82% of respondents are reluctant to ask their doctor for sick leave during crises.