Oral contraceptive use and risk of endometriosis

Italian Endometriosis Study Group, F Parazzini, E Di Cintio, L Chatenoud, S Moroni, C Mezzanotte, P G Crosignani
British journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 1999 · vol. 106(7) , pp. 695–699 · doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.1999.tb08369.x · PMID:10428526 · W2471800181
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study found an increased risk of endometriosis among current and former oral contraceptive users compared to never users.

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the association between use of oral contraception and risk of pelvic endometriosis. DESIGN: We compared use of oral contraception in women with and without endometriosis. PARTICIPANTS: Eligible for the study were women with primary or secondary infertility (n = 393) or chronic pelvic pain (n = 424), requiring laparoscopy, consecutively observed between September 1995 and January 1996 in 15 obstetrics and gynaecology departments in Italy. RESULTS: Out of the 817 women included in the study, 345 had a diagnosis of endometriosis; 164 (47.5%) women with endometriosis and 139 (29.4%) without the disease reported ever using oral contraception. In comparison with never users the estimated odds ratios (OR) of endometriosis were 1.8 (95% CI 1.0-3.3) in current users and 1.6 (95% CI 1.1-2.4) in ex-users. No clear relation emerged between duration of oral contraceptive use and risk of endometriosis. In comparison with never users, the OR was 1.8 (95% CI 1.1-3.0) for women reporting their last use of oral contraception or = 5 years before interview. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that oral contraception is associated with an increased risk of endometriosis but this finding is based on a selected population and cannot generalised to all women with endometriosis.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715mesh:D017699endometriosischronic_pelvic_paininfertility

MeSH descriptors

Contraceptives, Oral Endometriosis Adult Contraceptives, Oral Endometriosis Female Humans Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Odds Ratio Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain Risk Factors

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (15)

Cited by (30)

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