{"paper_id":"9dfc7ebd-f9b9-4bb0-a361-2b2f8636b719","body_text":"Abstract\nEndometriosis is a gynecological disease characterized by the presence of endometrial glands and stroma outside the uterine cavity. Despite the fact that this disease is very frequent and has a significant social impact, the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and therapy are still not perfectly delineated. Retrograde menstruation and coelomic metaplasia are the most documented pathogenetic hypotheses. Research directed by our group and others has outlined experimental evidence indicating an alteration of the fine-tuning of the female genital system developmental program during the fetal life as the pathogenetic event prompting to the development of endometriosis later in life. The goal of this chapter is to summarize the latest evidences about the presence of endometriosis in the human fetus. 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Gen Comp Endocrinol. 2010;168:318–25.\nAcknowledgments\nThis work was supported by a grant from Fondazione Italiana Endometriosi.\nAuthor information\nAuthors and Affiliations\nCorresponding author\nEditor information\nEditors and Affiliations\nRights and permissions\nCopyright information\n© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG\nAbout this chapter\nCite this chapter\nSignorile, P.G., Baldi, A. (2020). The Presence of Endometriosis in the Human Fetus. In: Nezhat, C.H. (eds) Endometriosis in Adolescents. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52984-0_8\nDownload citation\nDOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52984-0_8\nPublished:\nPublisher Name: Springer, Cham\nPrint ISBN: 978-3-030-52983-3\nOnline ISBN: 978-3-030-52984-0\neBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)","source_license":"CC0","license_restricted":false}