Associations and gastrointestinal symptoms in women with endometriosis in comparison to women with irritable bowel syndrome: a study based on a population cohort

Sofie Stark Junkka, Bodil Ohlsson
BMC gastroenterology · 2023 · vol. 23(1) , pp. 228 · doi:10.1186/s12876-023-02861-w · PMID:37400789 · PMC10316551 · W4382986982
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 5 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This study found associations between endometriosis and IBS, as well as with smoking and sick leave, but observed no differences in gastrointestinal symptoms between the two conditions.

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

⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This population-based cohort study used questionnaire and register data from women in the Malmö Offspring Study to examine associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and to compare gastrointestinal symptoms measured with a visual analog scale over the prior 2 weeks. Endometriosis diagnoses (from national inpatient/specialized outpatient records) and self-reported IBS (single questionnaire item) were analyzed against sociodemographic and lifestyle variables using logistic regression, with symptom differences tested nonparametrically. The study found that endometriosis was associated with IBS (OR 1.86) and that IBS showed an association with endometriosis (OR 1.77), while neither comparison showed gastrointestinal symptom differences between the endometriosis and IBS groups; both conditions related to smoking and sick leave. A major limitation is the small number of women with recorded endometriosis and reliance on self-reported IBS rather than objective diagnostic confirmation. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it directly compares gastrointestinal symptoms and co-occurrence with IBS in women from a population cohort.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have similar symptoms, pathogenesis, and risk factors. These diagnoses often coexist and are frequently misdiagnosed leading to diagnostic delays. This study of a population-based cohort aimed to investigate associations relating to endometriosis and IBS and to compare gastrointestinal symptoms between endometriosis and IBS. METHOD: The study cohort included women from the Malmö Offspring Study with information about endometriosis and IBS diagnoses from the National Board of Health and Welfare. The participants answered a questionnaire about lifestyle habits, medical and drug history, and self-reported IBS. The visual analog scale for IBS was used to estimate gastrointestinal symptoms the past 2 weeks. Endometriosis diagnosis and self-reported IBS were used as dependent variables to study associations with age, body mass index (BMI), education, occupation, marital status, smoking, alcohol habits, and physical activity using logistic regression. Mann-Whitney U Test or Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to calculate the differences in symptoms between groups. RESULTS: Of the 2,200 women with information from medical records, 72 participants had endometriosis; 21 (29.2%) of these had self-reported IBS. Of the 1,915 participants who had answered the questionnaire, 436 (22.8%) had self-reported IBS. Endometriosis was associated with IBS (OR:1.86; 95%CI:1.06-3.26; p = 0.029), as well as with age 50-59 years (OR:6.92; 95%CI:1.97-24.32; p = 0.003), age ≥ 60 years (OR:6.27; 95%CI:1.56-25.17; p = 0.010), sick leave (OR:2.43; 95%CI:1.08-5.48; p = 0.033), and former smoking (OR:3.02; 95%CI:1.19-7.68; p = 0.020). There was an inverse association with BMI (OR:0.36; 95%CI:0.14-4.91; p = 0.031). IBS was associated with endometriosis (OR:1.77; 95%CI:1.02-3.07; p = 0.041) and sick leave (OR:1.77; 95%CI:1.14-2.73; p = 0.010), with a tendency to association with smoking (OR:1.30; 95%CI:0.98-1.72; p = 0.071). When excluding participants using drugs associated with IBS, the condition was associated with current smoking (OR:1.39; 95%CI:1.03-1.89; p = 0.033) and inversely with age 50-59 years (OR:0.58; 95%CI:0.38-0.90; p = 0.015). There were differences in the gastrointestinal symptoms between IBS and healthy participants, but not between endometriosis and IBS or healthy participants. CONCLUSION: There were associations between endometriosis and IBS, without differences in gastrointestinal symptoms. Both IBS and endometriosis were associated with smoking and sick leave. Whether the associations reflect causality or depend on common risk factors and pathogenesis remains to be determined.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisirritable_bowel_syndrome

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis

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 (47)

Cited by (5)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-16T06:07:01.518242+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-06-16T06:05:56.313858+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK