What do endometriosis stages mean?

Endometriosis staging is a surgical scoring system, most often the ASRM system, that describes what was found at laparoscopy: how much disease is present, where it is, and whether there are adhesions or ovarian endometriomas. It sorts findings into four stages (I through IV), from minimal to severe, based on those anatomic features. This can be helpful shorthand for documentation and planning, but it’s not a complete picture of the disease.

The most important thing to know is that stage does not reliably predict how much pain you have, how disabling your symptoms are, or even how complex your case may be. Someone can have intense symptoms with a low stage score, while someone with a higher stage may have less pain. That’s because symptoms often depend on where endometriosis is and how it behaves, especially with subtypes like deep infiltrating disease (which can involve structures such as the bowel, bladder, ureters, and pelvic ligaments) that aren’t always captured well by a single staging number.

In our practice, we look beyond stage and focus on mapping disease location, identifying subtypes, and understanding your full symptom pattern and goals (pain relief, fertility, organ function, recurrence risk). If you’ve been told a stage and it doesn’t seem to match what you’re experiencing, that doesn’t mean your symptoms are any less real. It usually means the staging label is incomplete. You can explore our educational resources or reach out to schedule a consultation so our team can help interpret what your stage means in the context of your specific anatomy and symptoms.