Endometriosis · Guide
Endometriosis explorer: guide
Show the pelvis within the body, tick where the report describes endometriosis and the size of any endometrioma, explain the treatment and share a matching picture sheet.
For patients and families
Look at the picture together
The picture opens with the whole body. Choose Pelvis to see the womb with an ovary on each side, the bladder in front and the bowel behind, then Womb and ovaries to move close. Drag to turn it and scroll or pinch to zoom.
Show what your scan or operation found
Endometriosis is tissue similar to the lining of the womb growing in other places. It is not cancer. Your clinician can tick where your report describes it: on the lining of the pelvis, on an ovary as an endometrioma (a chocolate cyst) with its size, behind the womb, on the bowel or on the bladder, and any scar tissue (adhesions). The places of the patches drawn are examples. Scans can look normal even when endometriosis is there, because small patches may not show up.
The side view in the corner shows the bladder, womb and bowel like a diagram. The shapes are schematic, not a copy of your scan.
Things you could ask
“Can you show me where the endometriosis is?”
“What are my choices, and what happens if I wait?”
“Could this affect getting pregnant?”
Take it home
Ask for a picture sheet with the views you discussed, your team’s explanation, what the womb and ovaries do and where to find help. A QR code reopens the same model settings on your phone. Names, notes and contact details are never included in that code or saved online.
For clinicians
Start with orientation
The explorer uses the womb, fallopian tubes, ovaries, cervix and vagina from the ovarian cyst explorer, in the same shapes and places, with the bladder, rectum, sacrum, see-through digestive tract and body from the rectal explorer. It opens at normal anatomy, with no findings or treatment.
Set up from the report
| Control | What to set |
|---|---|
| Findings on the model | Add endometriosis. Ticking a place, or changing the endometrioma’s side or size, or choosing a treatment, also adds it. |
| Where the report describes it | Any combination of: the pelvic lining (peritoneum); an endometrioma on an ovary; behind the womb (pouch of Douglas, deep endometriosis); the bowel; the bladder; scar tissue (adhesions). Use what the ultrasound, MRI or laparoscopy report says. The patches and bands are drawn in example places with example sizes. |
| Ovary with the endometrioma | Right, left or both. With both, the entered size is the larger endometrioma; the other is drawn smaller as an example. |
| Size of the endometrioma | 10–100 mm, the largest dimension as written in the report. The number box and slider stay in step; it is drawn at this diameter. |
The model does not use a classification or scoring system (such as rASRM or #Enzian) and does not grade severity. It reminds the patient that scans can be normal even when endometriosis is present.
Explain a selected plan
Pain relief and hormone treatment draws nothing extra and does not mention surgery. Keyhole surgery to remove or destroy the patches (laparoscopic excision or ablation) colours the patches teal as the area treated; After surgery shows them gone. It is offered when a place with patches is ticked. Removal of the endometrioma (ovarian cystectomy) colours only the endometrioma teal and keeps the ovary; it is offered when an endometrioma is ticked. Removal of the womb (hysterectomy) colours the womb, cervix and fallopian tubes teal and keeps the ovaries; After surgery still shows endometriosis outside the womb. The team selects the plan; the model does not judge which treatment is suitable. Bowel or bladder resection, oophorectomy, fertility treatment and GnRH analogues are mentioned at most in passing and are not modelled.
Picture sheet and QR code
Capture up to four views with Snapshot, then use Picture sheet (PDF). The sheet can include a help page with life after the treatment chosen. The QR link stores validated model settings only. Changing any model setting clears older snapshots.
Limits
- Patches, nodules and scar tissue are drawn at example places and sizes; only which places are ticked, and the endometrioma’s side and size, come from the report.
- Ureteric, diaphragmatic, abdominal wall and other sites, and adenomyosis, are not shown.
- Symptoms, fertility, blood tests and imaging appearances are not modelled.
Sources and review
- NHS: endometriosis
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Endometriosis: diagnosis and management (NG73).
- European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. Endometriosis guideline (2022).
Practising gynaecologist and endometriosis specialist review is still needed for clinical teaching use. Please send corrections through feedback.