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June 8, 2026
Adnexal Mass: What It Means, Types, and What Happens Next
An adnexal mass isn't a diagnosis: It's a descriptor for any growth near the ovaries or fallopian tubes. Learn what types exist, how doctors evaluate them.
Diagnosing endometriosis has already moved away from surgery. The remaining blind spot is the most common form of the disease, and a new imaging agent is aimed straight at it.
The basics, quickly
Endometriosis is when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows in other places it shouldn't, like the ovaries, fallopian tubes, or the tissue lining the pelvis. That tissue still responds to hormones, so it builds up and bleeds with the menstrual cycle, with no way to leave the body. The result is inflammation, pain, and sometimes scarring and fertility problems. It affects roughly 1 in 10 people with a uterus.
The disease shows up in different forms, and that turns out to matter for diagnosis. Deep endometriosis burrows into nearby organs. Ovarian endometriosis forms cysts. Superficial peritoneal endometriosis sits on the surface of the pelvic lining, and it's both the most common form and the hardest to see.
What the new research is
Researchers at the University of Oxford have published early trial results on an imaging agent that makes endometriosis lesions visible on a scan, including the kind that standard imaging tends to miss. The findings, published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women's Health, point to a non-invasive way to find disease that today often goes undetected until surgery.
To understand why that matters, it helps to know how much diagnosis has already changed...
Carly Malo is myStoria's Head of Concierge. She has 2 decades of experience in direct nursing care, having worked in long-term care, sports medicine, practical nursing, and fertility/reproductive health.
