Endometriosis: the saliva test to detect the disease could soon be reimbursed by Social Security

La ministre de la Santé vise 2025 pour le remboursement du test salivaire. ILLUSTRATION MIDI LIBRE – SYLVIE CAMBON

The Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin, announced this Thursday, March 7, the reimbursement of saliva tests to diagnose endometriosis by 2025. A measure that could benefit 10,000 to 20,000 women.

The government is targeting 2025 for the provision and reimbursement of a saliva test to detect endometriosis, announced this Thursday, March 7, the Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin.

"The High Authority of Health has just highlighted the interest of this test. (…) We still have an experiment on 3,000 women until the end of the year", indicated Catherine Vautrin.

The minister explained that this saliva test, developed by a French start-up, was very expensive, "around 1,000 euros" , but that the objective was "to be able to free up the budget so that 10,000 or 20,000 women could benefit from this test, reimbursed by the social security".

A long and complex diagnosis

As a reminder, endometriosis is a gynecological disease affecting 1 in 10 women in France. It results in severe pain during periods and can cause infertility. Its diagnosis can be long and complex: even today, endometriosis is often diagnosed by chance, with an average delay of seven years, according to the Ministry of Health. nbsp;

The evaluation of the saliva test, called Endotest, "promising" and "innovative", according to the terms of the High Authority of Health, demonstrated a diagnostic accuracy of 95%.& nbsp;But the HAS stressed the need "to carry out additional studies" before ruling on the opportunity or not of a lasting reimbursement.

Dramatically undervalued figures

One of the main associations of endometriosis patients, ENDOmind, was "delighted by the desire to to be able to provide French women with this French innovation through reimbursement for the test", but judged "dramatically undervalued" the figures of "3,000 tests reimbursed in 2024 and 10 to 20,000 tests in 2025".< /p>

In addition, Catherine Vautrin also announced the launch of "educational work with companies" and "a national information campaign’  em>"in the coming weeks".