Endometriosis and infertility: a cause-effect relationship?

Barbieri RL, Robert L. Barbieri, Missmer S, Stacey A. Missmer, Stacey Missmer
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2002 · vol. 955(1) , pp. 23–33 · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb02762.x · PMID:11949950 · W2085559164
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Animal models show advanced endometriosis reduces fertility, and while the conditions are associated in humans, high-quality clinical trials are needed to confirm endometriosis causes infertility.

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Abstract

Two major methodological problems that impact clinical research in endometriosis are the absence of a low-cost, highly reliable method for diagnosing endometriosis and the possibility that endometriosis is actually multiple different diseases that we have not yet been able to differentiate. Animal models of endometriosis clearly demonstrate that advanced endometriosis causes reduced fertility. In humans, endometriosis and infertility are commonly associated. However, few data from high-quality clinical trials demonstrate that endometriosis causes infertility in humans. Future research should focus on the implications of the observation that, in ovarian endometriosis cysts, the epithelium is monoclonal. This observation suggests that nonrandom somatic mutations cause ovarian endometriosis cysts. If somatic mutations cause ovarian endometriosis cysts, it is likely that a small number of genes can be identified that play a central role in pathogenesis of this disease.

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Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Infertility, Female Animals Animals CA-125 Antigen CA-125 Antigen CA-125 Antigen Disease Models, Animal Disease Models, Animal Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Female Humans Humans Immunohistochemistry Immunohistochemistry Infertility, Female

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 (50)

Cited by (16)

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