Catamenial pneumothorax. Is it time to approach differently?

This 2014 review examines catamenial pneumothorax and related thoracic conditions—catamenial hemothorax, catamenial hemoptysis, and pulmonary endometriosis—describing them as part of the thoracic endometriosis syndrome and a spectrum of ectopic pelvic endometriosis. It discusses proposed pathogenesis and highlights that variable clinical presentation has contributed to the condition being overlooked, misdiagnosed, or underdiagnosed, limiting the development of standardized diagnostic and management protocols. As a review, it synthesizes existing literature and approaches, but the paper does not present new patient data and does not claim specific effectiveness estimates for a single protocol. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it frames catamenial pneumothorax within the thoracic endometriosis syndrome and discusses its link to ectopic pelvic endometriosis.

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