Epidemiology and aetiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2014 Epidemiology Endometriosis is one of the most common benign conditions found among gynaecological patients. Various estimates suggest that 6-44% of women of a reproductive age have endometriosis. However, as the accurate diagnosis of this condition depends upon laparoscopic examination, the prevalence of endometriosis in the general population is unknown. The variable appearance of endometriotic lesions at laparoscopy and the ability of gynaecologists to recognise these lesions also affect the reported incidence and prevalence. Furthermore, the prevalence of endometriosis varies depending upon the type of hospital-based population investigated. Table 1.1 shows the prevalence data of specific patient groups. It is most commonly found in patients undergoing investgations for infertility and chronic abdominal pain. Prevalence is known to vary according to geography and race, with high levels recorded amongst Japanese women. The incidence of this condition is believed to be higher among first-degree relatives of patients. Table 1.1 clearly demonstrates a wide variation in the reported prevalence of endometriosis, often reflecting investigators' biases at the time the studies were undertaken. There are many potential confounding variables when comparing different national and ethnic groups, including availability of health care, access to contraception, cultural patterns of childbearing and the attitude toward menses. Bias can also occur when patients are selected according to their symptoms at presentation. Thus, prevalence will vary depending upon whether pelvic pain in general, or a specific symptom such as dyspareunia or dysmenorrhoea, is used to select patients. - Type - Chapter - Information - Endometriosis , pp. 1 - 8Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004 Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future. To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle. Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply. Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service. - Epidemiology and aetiology - Book: Endometriosis - Online publication: 05 February 2014 To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox. - Epidemiology and aetiology - Book: Endometriosis - Online publication: 05 February 2014 To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive. - Epidemiology and aetiology - Book: Endometriosis - Online publication: 05 February 2014