Oxidative Imbalance in Endometriosis-Related Infertility—The Therapeutic Role of Antioxidants

Izabela Dymanowska-Dyjak; Karolina Frankowska; Monika Abramiuk; Grzegorz Polak

doi:10.3390/ijms25126298

Oxidative Imbalance in Endometriosis-Related Infertility—The Therapeutic Role of Antioxidants

Izabela Dymanowska-Dyjak, Karolina Frankowska, Monika Abramiuk, Grzegorz Polak

International journal of molecular sciences · 2024 · vol. 25(12) , pp. 6298 · doi:10.3390/ijms25126298 · PMID:38928002 · W4399438832

article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 10 in-corpus citations

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

This review analyzes how antioxidants like vitamins, NAC, curcumin, melatonin, and resveratrol alleviate oxidative stress and inflammation, potentially improving fertility in women with endometriosis.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Endometriosis in half of affected women is closely related to problems with fertility. Endometriosis-associated infertility is caused by a wide range of abnormalities affecting the female reproductive tract, from oocyte quality impairment to disturbances in the eutopic endometrium or mechanical abnormalities resulting from disease progression. Since supportive antioxidant therapies, in addition to surgical treatment or assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs), have overall been proven to be effective tools in endometriosis management, the objective of our review was to analyze the role of antioxidant substances, including vitamins, micronutrients, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), curcumin, melatonin, and resveratrol, in endometriosis-related infertility. Most of these substances have been proven to alleviate the systemic oxidant predominance, which has been expressed through decreased oxidative stress (OS) markers and enhanced antioxidative defense. In addition, we demonstrated that the predominant effect of the aforementioned substances is the inhibition of the development of endometriotic lesions as well as the suppression of pro-inflammatory molecules. Although we can undoubtedly conclude that antioxidants are beneficial in fertility support, further studies explaining the detailed pathways of their action are needed.

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Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Antioxidants Antioxidants Antioxidants Antioxidants Antioxidants Antioxidants Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Infertility, Female

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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.

References (100)

Cited by (10)

SciLite annotations

chemicals 4

n-acetylcystathionine curcumin melatonin resveratrol

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