Catamenial Pneumothorax Without Thoracic Endometriosis: A Case Report From the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Region

Ahmed Ahmed, Nissar Shaikh, Firdos Ummunnisa, Umm E Amara, Umm E Nashrah, Umme Nashrah
Cureus · 2025 · vol. 17(10) , pp. e94888 · doi:10.7759/cureus.94888 · PMID:41262829 · W4415341931
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This case report describes a 37-year-old woman with catamenial pneumothorax, successfully treated with bleb excision and hormonal therapy, highlighting that thoracic endometriosis is not always present.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This Cureus case report describes catamenial pneumothorax occurring without thoracic endometriosis, focusing on a clinical presentation from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The paper’s main emphasis is the reported occurrence of symptoms aligned with menstruation despite no thoracic endometriosis being identified. As a single case report, it provides limited generalizability and does not establish causality. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it addresses catamenial pneumothorax in the context of the absence of thoracic endometriosis, directly relating it to endometriosis-associated cyclical disease.

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Abstract

Catamenial pneumothorax is a rare clinical condition first described over seven decades ago. It typically occurs within 72 hours before or after menstruation and is most frequently observed in women of reproductive age. Reports from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, including Qatar, remain limited, and underreporting has also been noted in developed countries such as Australia. This report presents a case of catamenial pneumothorax without evidence of thoracic abnormal endometriosis. A 37-year-old woman presented repeatedly to the emergency department with chest pain occurring during menstruation. Chest radiography showed a right-sided pneumothorax. Video-assisted thoracoscopy revealed right upper lobe blebs, which were excised. Laparoscopy identified the spread of endometrial tissue in the pelvis, ovaries, and uterus. The patient was treated with hormonal oral contraceptive therapy and remains under outpatient follow-up. Catamenial pneumothorax can occur in the absence of endometrial thoracic tissue. A high index of suspicion is essential for diagnosis in reproductive-aged women with recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax.

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Condition tags

endometriosisthoracic_endometriosis

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 (14)

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