Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Recent studies strongly suggest that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play a key role in the initiation of menstrual bleeding in the human endometrium upon the fall of ovarian steroid serum concentrations by inducing the degradation of the …

Endometriosis is one of the most commonly encountered gynecologic diseases requiring medical and/or surgical therapy. It is a leading cause of hysterectomy in the United States and has significant associated morbidity. The most frequent sym…

Endometriosis is a common gynecologic disorder that affects approximately 14% of all women and 30% to 50% of infertile women. Since the most common symptoms of endometriosis--progressive dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain, and i…

Two major methodological problems that impact clinical research in endometriosis are the absence of a low-cost, highly reliable method for diagnosing endometriosis and the possibility that endometriosis is actually multiple different diseas…

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent disease characterized by the presence of endometrial glands and stroma outside the uterine cavity. The etiology of this disease remains elusive, but is clearly influenced by genetic, immune, and endocr…

Aromatase activity is absent in normal endometrium. In contrast, aromatase is expressed aberrantly in endometriosis, which gives rise to strikingly high levels of aromatase activity in this tissue. Both aromatase expression and activity are…

Endometriosis is a complex disease that can develop as a consequence of retrograde menstruation, occurring in association with the cyclic loss of endometrial tissue in primates and humans. In addition, progression of disease parallels a wom…

Endometriosis is well established as a condition showing heritable tendencies. Polygenic/multifactorial etiology appears far more likely to be the etiology than Mendelian inheritance. The current task is to determine the number and location…

The endometrium undergoes characteristic histologic changes during the menstrual cycle as it prepares for embryo implantation. Historic and current data suggest the presence of a defined period of maximal uterine receptivity during the mid-…

Endometriosis, defined by the presence of viable endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity, is among the most common gynecologic disorders affecting women of reproductive age. Endometriosis is associated with an inflammatory peritoneal …

Retrograde menstruation has been suggested to be the cause for the presence of endometrial cells in the peritoneal cavity. However, little is known about the events that lead to the adhesion and growth of these cells that ultimately result …

The endometrial lining of the human uterus is a highly specialized, steroid-sensitive tissue. Throughout the reproductive years, the endometrium undergoes dramatic cycles of growth, differentiation, and breakdown under the influence of ovar…

Following retrograde menstruation, shed endometrial tissue fragments attach to and invade the peritoneal surface to form established endometriotic lesions. With disease progression, the biochemically active lesions undergo remodeling and be…

According to current theory, endometriosis is initiated during retrograde menstruation when menstrual fragments flow out of the fimbriated end of the fallopian tubes and become established on the ovarian surface or other sites in the perito…

The human endometrium exhibits regular cycles of growth, differentiation, and breakdown in response to changing levels of ovarian steroids. Following the tissue loss and repair processes of menstruation, rising levels of estradiol initiate …

There is ample evidence demonstrating that endometriosis is accompanied by inflammatory reactions in the peritoneum, resulting in abnormal levels of a variety of cytokines and chemokines in the peritoneal fluid. Among the immunological para…

This paper asks various questions regarding endometriosis surgery. These address the research issues of the necessity of treatment, surgical technique, terminology, the definition of the rectovaginal septum, standards for research, and the …

Endometriosis, like cancer, is characterized by cell invasion and unrestrained growth. Furthermore, endometriosis and cancer are similar in other aspects, such as the development of new blood vessels and a decrease in the number of cells un…

Endometriosis, the presence of endometrial tissue outside the uterus, is a progressive, estrogen-dependent disease and occurs nearly exclusively in menstruating women of reproductive age. Pain syndrome, however, represents the major clinica…

Advances in understanding the epidemiology of endometriosis have lagged behind other diseases because of methodologic problems related to disease definition and control selection. Nevertheless, a better picture of the epidemiology of endome…

The etiology of endometriosis is uncertain, but there is increasing evidence that it is inherited as a complex genetic trait like diabetes or asthma. In such complex traits, multiple gene loci conferring susceptibility to the disease intera…

Endometriosis is a benign gynecologic disorder associated with pelvic pain and infertility, with the latter being due, in part, to failure of embryonic implantation in the maternal endometrium. Adequacy of the endometrium for fertility has …

Humans and animals are exposed daily to a complex mixture of polyhalogenated aromatic hydrocarbons (PHAHs). Previous work has shown that exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is associated with a dose-dependent increase in …

The treatment of endometriosis focuses upon amelioration of two symptoms: pain and infertility. The treatment of endometriosis-associated pain has been well studied and all major medical therapies appear to be superior to placebo. In additi…

Although there are disadvantages of extrapolating data across species, the rat model may be used to study events involved in the pathogenesis and pathophysiologies of endometriosis or novel therapeutic approaches for this disorder that are …