Medical negligence · Australia-wide
My doctor kept telling me it was just period pain.
Could that be negligence?
If you have endometriosis and it took years to diagnose, you are not alone — and you are right to ask whether the system failed you. This guide answers the questions Australians are actually asking.
Endometriosis is common. Diagnostic delay is documented. And at almost every stage of the journey — the GP who dismissed your pain, the scan that showed "nothing", the surgery that left things worse — the law has something to say about what clinicians were required to do.
This guide does not tell you that your case is automatically negligence. It does something more useful: it explains the legal standard, addresses the questions women across Australia are actually asking, and helps you work out whether what happened to you is worth examining properly.
The questions people are actually asking
If these sound familiar, read on
These are composite questions drawn from the experiences that Australian women describe — in forums, in consultations, in the years before and after diagnosis.
My GP told me it was just bad periods for years. I finally got diagnosed at 29. Was that negligence?
Possibly. The legal question is not whether endometriosis is hard to diagnose — it is. The question is whether your GP did what a competent GP was required to do: take a proper history, consider endometriosis in the differential, order a pelvic ultrasound, and refer when hormonal treatment wasn't working. Repeated dismissal without investigation can breach the standard of care.
They treated me for IBS for four years. Now I know it was bowel endometriosis all along. Can I claim?
This is one of the most common presentations. Bowel endometriosis shares symptoms with IBS, but the RANZCOG guideline requires clinicians to consider deep infiltrating endometriosis where gynaecological symptoms co-exist with bowel symptoms. A misdiagnosis that caused you to go without the right treatment for years is a legitimate basis for examination.
Nobody ever told me my endometriosis could affect my fertility until it was too late for IVF to work. Is that on the doctor?
The duty to warn patients about material risks — including fertility risk — is well established in Australian law following Rogers v Whitaker (1992). If you were not counselled about fertility implications at the time of a suspected or confirmed diagnosis, and that failure caused you to lose the chance to pursue treatment earlier, that failure to warn is actionable.
My laparoscopy left me in more pain than before. The surgeon only did ablation, not excision. Does that matter legally?
It can. The clinical standard increasingly supports excision over ablation for deep infiltrating endometriosis. If ablation was used where excision was indicated — and disease recurred or was incompletely treated as a result — the surgical technique used can be central to a negligence claim. Post-surgical worsening is not simply "bad luck".
My bowel was nicked during my endometriosis surgery. I needed a second emergency operation. Is that automatically negligence?
Not automatically — bowel injury is a known surgical risk. The question is whether the injury occurred because the surgeon exercised the skill expected of a reasonably competent gynaecological surgeon in those circumstances. How the injury occurred, and how it was managed afterwards, are both legally significant.
I keep second-guessing myself. Maybe I just had a hard case. How do I know if what happened was actually negligence?
Self-doubt is normal and is not the legal standard. The test is objective: did your clinician do what a competent clinician in the same position was required to do under Australian clinical guidelines? Medical records don't lie — they record what was and wasn't done. That's what a legal examination looks at.
I'm in Queensland / Victoria / WA — does medical negligence law work the same way across Australia?
The core framework is similar across Australian states and territories — duty of care, breach, causation, and harm — though each state has its own civil liability legislation. Time limits vary slightly. The clinical standard set by RANZCOG applies nationally, which means the standard of care is the same wherever you are in Australia.
It's been six years since my surgery. Have I missed the window to make a claim?
Not necessarily. Limitation periods in Australian states generally run from the date of discoverability — when you knew or ought to have known that you may have suffered harm due to negligence. Given the long diagnostic delays in endometriosis, many women have longer effective windows than they realise. Get legal advice before assuming your time has passed.
My ultrasound came back "all clear" but later MRI found significant endometriosis. Could the first scan have been wrong?
Transvaginal pelvic ultrasound is the recommended first-line investigation under the RANZCOG guideline — but it must be performed and interpreted to an adequate standard. Missed endometriomas or deep infiltrating disease on imaging can constitute radiological negligence, separate from any GP or gynaecologist failure. The radiologist who reported the scan also owes you a duty of care.
I agreed to a hysterectomy but I wasn't told about the long-term consequences or that there were other options. Is that a problem?
Yes. Informed consent requires that you be told of material risks and reasonable alternatives. A patient in your position who would have made a different decision had they been properly informed has a potential claim. Rogers v Whitaker puts the patient — not the doctor — at the centre of the consent standard.
After my surgery, I was just sent home with no follow-up plan. The endometriosis came back and now my fertility is gone. Is that a failure?
The duty of care does not end in the operating theatre. Clinicians are required to establish a post-surgical monitoring plan, manage recurrence risk, and address ongoing fertility concerns. Discharge without a plan, followed by unmonitored disease progression, is a legitimate area of legal examination.
Years of being dismissed wrecked my mental health. I'm on medication for depression and anxiety. Can that be part of a claim?
Psychological harm is a recognised head of damage in Australian negligence law. If the depression and anxiety you now live with are causally linked to the failure to diagnose and treat your endometriosis, those harms are compensable alongside physical harm. Clinicians also have a duty to assess and refer for psychological support.
The data
The average Australian endometriosis journey
And where the law had something to say
Sources: AIHW Endometriosis in Australia 2023; Armour et al. (2020) Scientific Reports; RANZCOG Living Evidence Guideline (2024).
The six-stage framework
Where negligence can occur across the endometriosis journey
Endometriosis unfolds across years and multiple clinical relationships. Each stage generates its own standard of care obligations.
The legal framework
What Australian law actually requires
Medical negligence law is broadly consistent across Australia — and the clinical standard that underpins it applies to every state and territory.
The three-part test
Any treating clinician — GP, gynaecologist, radiologist, surgeon — owes you a duty of care. This is rarely disputed in medical negligence.
The clinician did not act as a reasonably competent practitioner in their position would have acted — measured against clinical guidelines and expert evidence.
The breach caused harm you would not otherwise have suffered — disease progression, fertility loss, unnecessary surgery, psychological harm.
Who sets the standard?
The landmark High Court decision in Rogers v Whitaker (1992) confirmed that the standard of care in Australia is set by the courts — not by the medical profession alone. A practice accepted by a body of clinicians can still be found negligent if the court determines it fell short.
For endometriosis, the RANZCOG Living Evidence Guideline (2024) provides the clinical benchmark against which conduct is measured. This guideline applies nationally.
Relevant bodies in Australia
For regulatory complaints about clinical conduct — separate from but sometimes running alongside legal claims — the relevant body is AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency). State health complaints bodies, such as the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC), also receive complaints.
Limitation periods for personal injury claims typically run from the date of discoverability — when you first knew or ought reasonably to have known that you may have suffered harm due to negligence. In endometriosis cases, given the years of delay, the start of that clock is not always obvious.
Do not assume your time has passed. Get advice.
First-line investigation: Transvaginal pelvic ultrasound must be offered to all women presenting with symptoms consistent with endometriosis.
Escalation threshold: Where first-line hormonal treatment produces no improvement after three months, escalation must be discussed with the patient.
Referral requirement: Where deep infiltrating endometriosis is suspected — based on symptoms, examination, or imaging — referral to a specialist endometriosis service is required.
Fertility counselling: Patients must be counselled about the fertility implications of endometriosis at the point of suspected or confirmed diagnosis.
Why this matters legally: Departure from these recommendations forms the clinical foundation of a breach argument in Australian negligence proceedings, regardless of which state the care occurred in.
Key Australian data points
$247 million — spent on endometriosis in the Australian health system in 2020–21 (AIHW 2023)
40,500 — endometriosis-related hospitalisations in Australia in 2021–22
50% — of women diagnosed with endometriosis in Australia experience fertility challenges (Endometriosis Australia)
12.3 years — average diagnostic delay reported in a 2025 mixed-methods Australian study; shorter (4.7 years) for those who first saw a GP after 2018
Common patterns
The experiences that warrant legal examination
These are the recurring patterns identified in HCCC complaints, Australian negligence cases, and the diagnostic journeys women describe.
I went to five different GPs over six years. Every single one said it was probably IBS or stress. Nobody ordered a scan until I paid privately.
The laparoscopy was supposed to fix it. Afterwards I was in so much more pain and they found out six months later that the bowel had been nicked and not repaired properly.
I was told at 31 that my fertility was essentially gone. Nobody ever told me at diagnosis at 24 that this was even a risk I should be thinking about.
My ultrasound report came back normal. It wasn't until I had an MRI that they found a 6cm endometrioma. How was that missed?
They did ablation, not excision, and the specialist I saw two years later said it was the wrong approach for my stage of disease and that's why everything came back worse.
After my hysterectomy I went into surgical menopause. Nobody told me that was likely or explained what that meant for my long-term health. I was 32.
Dr Rosemary Listing
Medical negligence lawyer · PhD · Peter Evans & Associates
Dr Rosemary Listing is a lawyer with a PhD in law, practising medical negligence through Peter Evans & Associates. Her legal work concentrates on cases where clinical care failed to meet the standard the law and the profession require.
Endometriosis cases sit at a particular intersection of clinical complexity and legal principle. The condition unfolds across years and multiple clinical relationships — each of which generates its own standard of care obligations. The RANZCOG guideline applies nationally, which means that wherever in Australia your care occurred, the same clinical benchmark applies.
The people who seek a legal examination of their endometriosis care are not looking to punish anyone. They want to understand what happened, whether it was avoidable, and whether what they experienced represented a failure of the standard clinicians are held to. Dr Listing examines medical records alongside expert clinical opinion and provides an honest assessment of where that standard was or wasn't met.
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