ArticleBMC women's health2025
Pre-operative expectations in patients with endometriosis - a qualitative interview study.
Article in BMC women's health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Neural Correlates of Explicit Outcome Expectation Effects: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis.Human brain mapping · 2026Pooled it
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4 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundExpectations determine treatment outcomes in several medical conditions. The significance of expectations for treatment outcomes in patients with endometriosis remains unknown. Endometriosis is a painful and debilitating disease that negatively affects quality of life. Up to 30% of surgically treated patients report persistent post-operative complaints and pain disability without sufficient medical explanation, indicating the impact of non-medical factors on treatment outcomes.
aimThe present qualitative study aimed to describe and understand pre-operative patient expectations, facilitators of and barriers to positive treatment outcomes.
methodAs part of a large mixed-method cohort study, a subsample of N = 33 patients with endometriosis were interviewed before laparoscopy. Structured content analysis was performed.
resultsPositive expectations included significant improvement or absence of complaints, receiving a diagnosis, and subsequently improved health-related quality of life. However, patients also reported negative expectations such as invalidation of their experience, persistence of complaints, or post-operative side effects. Patients perceived positive expectations as facilitators for positive treatment outcomes. Further facilitators included enhanced patient and treatment information, gynaecologists specialized in endometriosis, and greater awareness of endometriosis. Perceived barriers to good post-operative quality of life included post-operative pain and scarring, insufficient rest, avoidance behaviour, and stress.
conclusionPositive and negative expectations coexisted. Positive expectations suggest that participants place much hope in laparoscopy. However, these positive expectations may exceed probable treatment outcomes for some patients. Negative expectations were also expressed and constituted a risk for nocebo effects. Further identified facilitators and barriers show that patients are very clear about what is helpful or not for their health-related quality of life after laparoscopy. Patient and treatment information may be enhanced to prevent unrealistic treatment expectations and nocebo effects.
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