Dyspareunia and heavy menstrual bleeding as clinical predictors of concomitant endometriosis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A multidisciplinary prospective study

Neri B, Benedetto Neri, Fiorillo M, Mariasofia Fiorillo, Federica Iacobini, Iacobini F, Mancone R, Roberto Mancone, Balice R, Raffaele Balice, Laluci E, Eleonora Laluci, Francesca Fabrizi, Fabrizi F, Lucarelli M, Michele Lucarelli, Russo C, Consuelo Russo, Caterina Exacoustos, Exacoustos C, Biancone L, Livia Biancone
Digestive and liver disease : official journal of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver · 2026 · doi:10.1016/j.dld.2026.07.086 · PMID:42637594 · W7204196895
article OA: hybrid public-domain-us
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by qwen3.7-flash, 2026-08-28 ⓘ

Multivariate analysis identified dyspareunia and heavy menstrual bleeding as significant risk factors for concomitant endometriosis, particularly deep infiltrating disease, in fertile patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

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

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The association between Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and endometriosis is undefined. AIMS: The primary aim was to identify clinical predictors of endometriosis in IBD. Secondary aim was to compare symptoms and IBD characteristics in patients with versus without endometriosis. METHODS: Consecutive fertile IBD patients with ≥1 symptom compatible with endometriosis were prospectively enrolled. Pelvic endometriosis was searched by transvaginal ultrasonography (TVUS). RESULTS: The study population included 82 IBD patients (age: 38 [18-53] years): 41 (50%) Crohn's Disease (CD), 41 (50%) Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Symptoms included: dysmenorrhea (n=72 [87.8%]), dyschezia (n=29 [35.4%]), dyspareunia (n=46 [56.1%]), heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) (n=50 [60.9%]), chronic abdominal pain (n=22 [26.8%]). TVUS detected endometriosis in 51 (62.2%) patients (CD: 23 [45.1%], UC: 28 [54.9%]), including deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) in 44 (86.3%). Dyspareunia, HBM and chronic abdominal pain were more frequent in patients with endometriosis (35 [68.6%] vs 11 [35.5%], p=0.007; 36 [70.6%] vs 14 [45.2], p=0.03; 18 [35.3%] vs 4 [12.9%], p=0.04). Multivariate analysis identifyied dyspareunia and HMB as risk factors for endometriosis (4.7 [1.6-13.9]; p=0.005; 4.3 [1.4-12.9]; p=0.008). CONCLUSIONS: Endometriosis may be highly underestimated in IBD, being mostly represented by DIE. Dyspareunia and HMB should be carefully searched in fertile young IBD patients to roule out an undiagnosed endometriosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

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 (29)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-09-10T06:15:44.054944+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-09-10T06:07:16.079658+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-09-10T06:09:02.609268+00:00
License: public-domain-us · commercial use OK · attribution required
Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine