A method of distinguishing whether a detected change in reflected power in an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) measurement carried out in a fiber optic transmission system (16) using an OTDR is caused by a an event causing actual attenuation or a change in a mode field diameter, comprising the steps of emitting a succession of first sampling light pulses of a first wavelength into the fiber optic transmission system (16) while a pumping signal with a second wavelength is emitted into the fiber optic transmission system (16), and measuring a first OTDR trace (34′) resulting from the reflection of the first sampling light pulses in the fiber optic transmission system (16), such that the first sampling light pulses and their reflections interact with the pumping signal via stimulated Raman scattering. The method further comprises a step (36) of determining, based at least on information extracted from the first OTDR trace (34′), whether the detected change is mainly due to an event causing actual attenuation or to a change in the mode field diameter in the fiber optic transmission system (16).