Is adenomyosis the neglected phenotype of an endomyometrial dysfunction syndrome?

Ivo Brosens, Georg Kunz, Giuseppe Benagiano
Gynecological surgery · 2011 · vol. 9(2) , pp. 131–137 · doi:10.1007/s10397-011-0723-3 · PMID:22611349 · W2046462982
article OA: hybrid CC0 ⤵ 30 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This paper reviews the historical neglect of adenomyosis research compared to endometriosis and discusses renewed interest driven by advancements in imaging techniques and the identification of the myometrial junctional zone.

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

This paper is a narrative review examining whether adenomyosis represents a neglected phenotype within an “endomyometrial dysfunction syndrome” linked to the myometrial junctional zone (JZ) and endomyometrium, contrasting historical diagnostic bias with newer MRI/sonographic and molecular findings. It highlights that eutopic endometrium in women with endometriosis and adenomyosis shows multiple molecular and cellular abnormalities, but stresses a key limitation: many studies of “endometriosis” endometrium may be confounded because contemporary adenomyosis is often not excluded without hysterectomy specimens or imaging. It also synthesizes evidence that JZ abnormalities correlate with both conditions and reports an MR-based high prevalence of adenomyosis among women with endometriosis (including an age- and fertility-related subgroup), alongside a caveat that potential cycle-related uterine contraction effects could bias measurements. This paper is centrally about endometriosis and adenomyosis — specifically proposing a shared endomyometrial dysfunction syndrome centered on junctional zone abnormalities and their association.

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Abstract

Since the dissociation between adenomyoma and endometriosis in the 1920s and the laparoscopic progress in the diagnosis and surgery of endometriosis, the literature has been greatly focused on the disease endometriosis. The study of adenomyosis, on the other hand, has been neglected as the diagnosis remained based on hysterectomy specimens. However, since the introduction of magnetic resonance and sonographic imaging techniques in the 1980s, the myometrial junctional zone has been identified as a third uterine zone and interest in adenomyosis was renewed. This has also been the start for the interest in the role of the myometrial junctional zone dysfunction and adenomyosis in reproductive and obstetrical disorders.

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Condition tags

endometriosisadenomyosis

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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.

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