Endometriosis and Body Fat Distribution

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AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08

This case-control study found that among women under 30, a lower waist-to-hip and waist-to-thigh ratio was associated with a higher risk of endometriosis.

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of body fat distribution with risk of endometriosis in an effort to determine whether a specific somatotype is related to the disease. METHODS: We conducted a case-control study of 88 laparoscopically confirmed cases of endometriosis, identified in a specialty gynecologic practice in western New York, and 88 age-matched friend controls. Data were collected by standardized personal interview, and body measurements were taken in a standardized fashion by one interviewer. Risk of endometriosis associated with body fat distribution, as expressed by waist-to-hip and waist-to-thigh ratios, was assessed using logistic regression. RESULTS: For women under 30 years of age (45 cases, 46 controls), endometriosis was inversely related to both waist-to-hip ratio (odds ratio 6.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.01-19.01) and waist-to-thigh ratio (odds ratio 3.64, 95% CI 1.23-10.78). This effect was not evident among women aged 30 years and older (43 cases, 42 controls). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest a specific somatotype with a predominance of peripheral body fat among women with endometriosis. This finding may provide information useful in both the diagnosis and understanding of the disease etiology.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Adipose Tissue Endometriosis Somatotypes Adipose Tissue Adult Anthropometry Case-Control Studies Endometriosis Female Humans Logistic Models Middle Aged 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.

Cited by (47)

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europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:11:34.315996+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK