Menstrual symptoms in women with pelvic endometriosis

T A Mahmood, Tahir A. Mahmood, A A Templeton, Allan Templeton, Laura Kelly Thomson, L Thomson, Clarke Fraser, C Fraser
British journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 1991 · vol. 98(6) , pp. 558–563 · doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.1991.tb10370.x · PMID:1873245 · W2103514054
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This study found dysmenorrhea to be most prevalent in women with endometriosis, though menstrual irregularity and spotting occurred equally across groups, suggesting symptoms are not entirely reliable indicators of disease.

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate menstrual symptoms in relation to pelvic pathology. DESIGN: A prospective questionnaire-based study. SETTING: Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Scotland. SUBJECTS: 1250 questionnaires were sent out prior to planned admission and 1200 women (96%) brought the completed questionnaires. They comprised 598 women undergoing laparoscopic sterilization, 312 having laparoscopy because of infertility, 156 having laparoscopy because of chronic pelvic pain and 134 women undergoing abdominal hysterectomy for dysfunctional uterine bleeding. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The occurrence of dysmenorrhoea, menorrhagia, menstrual regularity, premenstrual spotting, deep dyspareunia and pelvic pain in women with either endometriosis and post infective pelvic adhesions or a normal pelvis. RESULTS: Menorrhagia, menstrual irregularity and premenstrual spotting occurred with equal frequency in all groups. Deep dyspareunia, pain after intercourse and recurrent pain unrelated to menstruation or coitus was more common in women with endometriosis and those with post infective pelvic adhesions than in those with a normal pelvis. Dysmenorrhoea appears to be more prevalent among women having endometriosis. CONCLUSIONS: Menstrual symptoms, while raising a high index of suspicion for endometriosis, are not entirely reliable as indicators of disease. Dysmenorrhoea is the most common reported symptom in endometriosis sufferers. Diagnostic laparoscopy should be considered before institution of treatment in women complaining of pelvic pain and menstrual symptoms.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004412mesh:D004715endometriosischronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrheadyspareuniainfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Menstruation Disturbances Pelvic Neoplasms Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Endometriosis Female Humans Menstruation Disturbances Pain Pain Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Pelvic Neoplasms Prospective Studies Tissue Adhesions Tissue Adhesions

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 (42)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

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