Diet quality and perceived effects of dietary changes in Dutch endometriosis patients: an observational study

Iris Krabbenborg, N. de Roos, Nicole de Roos, Pim van der Grinten, Annemiek Nap
Reproductive biomedicine online · 2021 · vol. 43(5) , pp. 952–961 · doi:10.1016/j.rbmo.2021.07.011 · PMID:34493462 · W3186217305
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This observational study found Dutch endometriosis patients have lower diet quality than the general population and perceive dietary changes, like removing gluten or dairy, as beneficial for symptom relief, though diet quality did not correlate with quality of life.

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Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the current diet of women with endometriosis, in terms of adherence to dietary guidelines and use of diets, and what are the perceived effects of dietary modifications? DESIGN: In this online explorative observational study, the Dutch Healthy Diet 2015 index (DHD-15) and quality of life (QoL) with the Endometriosis Health Profile-30 questionnaire (EHP-30) were used to assess diet quality. RESULTS: The questionnaires were completed by 157 participants. Many participants made one or more dietary adaptations for their endometriosis, in the form of a specific diet (46.5%), with the use of dietary supplements (56.1%), with other dietary adjustments (64.3%), or all. Endometriosis patients had a significantly lower DHD-15 score, indicating a lower diet quality than a healthy reference group (P = 0.004). In the endometriosis group, diet users had a significantly higher total DHD-15 score than non-diet users (P < 0.0001). Diet quality was not correlated with QoL (Pearson's r = -0.010, P = 0.904). Many specific dietary adjustments (71.3%), however, were reported to reduce endometriosis pain-related symptoms. The removal of gluten, dairy or soy, as well as the addition of vegetables, showed the greatest perceived reductions of symptoms in participants. CONCLUSIONS: Although no specific dietary adjustment was found to increase QoL, endometriosis patients do feel that dietary adjustments have a beneficial effect on their symptoms. Therefore, more research is needed to gain evidence about the specific effects of nutrients on endometriosis symptoms.

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Outcome instruments

EHP-30

Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Diet, Healthy Diet, Healthy Endometriosis Adult Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Gastrointestinal Diseases Health Behavior Health Status Humans Netherlands Pain Quality of Life Self-Management Surveys and Questionnaires

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

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. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (33)

Cited by (37)

Source provenance

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