On 7 July, NICE said the NHS could start using two non-invasive endometriosis tests. The same day, researchers in Edinburgh published evidence that the condition leaves a measurable hormone pattern in the blood. Neither replaces a laparoscopy yet, but for people currently stuck in a nine-year queue for a diagnosis, both are worth knowing about.
The wait is getting longer, not shorter
Some context first. Endometriosis UK’s 2026 report on the state of care put the average time from first GP visit to diagnosis at 9 years and 4 months across the UK. For women from ethnically diverse communities the average is 11 years. The charity’s data also showed that 82.6% of people were dismissed or told their symptoms were normal, more than half had gone to A&E because of symptoms, and a third waited over a year to see a gynaecologist after being referred.
That figure of nine-plus years is worse than it was a decade ago. The charity has been blunt about this: diagnosis times have been going up, not down.
Two tests NICE says the NHS can start using
On 7 July, NICE published draft guidance recommending two technologies for use in primary care while more evidence is gathered. The plan is a three-year period of early use, with the manufacturers collecting data and NICE reviewing it annually.
Endotest is a saliva test. You give a sample, and a lab looks for microRNAs, small biological markers that are associated with endometriosis. The result goes back to your clinician to guide what happens next.
Endosure measures electrical signals in the gut using sensor pads placed on the abdomen. The test takes about 45 minutes and involves fasting first, then drinking water.
A third test, DotEndo, a blood test for disease biomarkers, was not recommended. NICE said it needs more research before the NHS should fund it.
The point of both recommended tests is that they can be done in a GP setting, without relying on a skilled ultrasound operator or a place on a surgical list. NICE’s healthtech programme director, Anastasia Chalkidou, framed it as giving primary care better tools to identify endometriosis earlier and get people to treatment sooner.
Emma Cox, chief executive of Endometriosis UK, welcomed the announcement but added a warning that is easy to skip past: the tests only help if GPs and practice nurses know when to use them. A test does not help someone whose symptoms are still being brushed off.
The consultation on the draft closed on 27 July. As of early September, final guidance has not been published, so the tests are not yet available on the NHS. That is worth remembering if you see headlines suggesting otherwise.
A hormone “fingerprint” that could become a blood test
Also on 7 July, a team at the University of Edinburgh published a study in the European Journal of Endocrinology that took a different route to the same goal.
Endometriosis has long been treated as an oestrogen-driven condition. The Edinburgh researchers looked instead at androgens, sometimes called male hormones though everyone has them, and in particular a group produced by the adrenal glands called 11-oxygenated androgens.
They measured hormone levels in the blood of 159 women with surgically confirmed endometriosis and 57 without. Those with the condition had a distinct pattern, including high levels of one androgen called 11-ketotestosterone. Using that pattern, the researchers correctly identified more than 95% of the endometriosis patients.
Dr Douglas Gibson, who led the work, described the findings as challenging the standard view of the disease and said the team hopes it leads to earlier diagnosis and, eventually, new treatments. The university is now looking for an industry partner to turn the finding into a diagnostic blood test.
Two caveats. The sample was small and not especially diverse, and the researchers themselves say larger trials are needed. Endometriosis UK said the same: promising, but early. A blood test based on this work is still years away.
What happens next
If you are waiting for a diagnosis right now, nothing has changed at your GP surgery yet. The NICE recommendations are still in draft, and the Edinburgh finding is still research.
What has changed is the direction of travel. NICE has said non-surgical tests are good enough to use while the evidence catches up, and a separate line of research points to a blood marker that could be developed alongside them. Endometriosis UK has set a target of getting diagnosis down to one year or less by 2030. Tests alone will not get there, but they are a necessary part of it.
If your GP has not heard about the NICE draft, you can point them to it. The guidance reference is GID-HTG10877 on the NICE website. And if you are being told your symptoms are normal, the Endometriosis UK helpline and symptom checker are still the most useful first steps.
We will update this article when NICE publishes its final decision.
Sources
- NICE: New technologies could help cut years-long wait for endometriosis diagnosis (7 July 2026)
- The Pharmaceutical Journal: NICE recommends non-invasive tests that could speed up endometriosis diagnoses (7 July 2026)
- University of Edinburgh: Hormone differences point to endometriosis blood test (7 July 2026)
- Endometriosis UK: Response to NICE draft recommendations (7 July 2026)
- Endometriosis UK: Message to the new Prime Minister (20 July 2026)
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