Stress reactivity and family relationships in the development and treatment of endometriosis

Harrison V, Victoria Harrison, Karen Rowan, Kathy Rowan, Rowan K, John R. Mathias, Mathias J, John Mathias
Fertility and sterility · 2005 · vol. 83(4) , pp. 857–864 · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2004.10.033 · PMID:15820791 · W2009486668
Review OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 19 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-07-19 ⓘ

Endometriosis symptoms in one woman and her parents were associated with prolonged stress reactions, unlike a nonsymptomatic volunteer, suggesting family history and relationships contribute to stress.

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

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine stress physiology and facts of family functioning associated with development and course of endometriosis symptoms. DESIGN: Clinical case data and literature review. SETTING: Private practice in hospital-affiliated medical office. PATIENT(S): One woman with endometriosis, her parents, and a nonsymptomatic volunteer. INTERVENTION(S): Measures of physiologic and neural reactivity with biofeedback and neurofeedback equipment during family history interview and while sitting quietly. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Electroencephalography (EEG), digital skin temperature (DST), electrodermal response (EDR), and electromyography (EMG); facts of family history; contact with family. RESULT(S): Endometriosis symptoms were associated with DST, EDR, EMG, and EEG measures indicating prolonged stress reactions for the symptomatic woman and her parents. Facts of family history and relationships for three generations set the stage for stress reactions. Striking differences are evident in the physiology, family history, and contact with family of the nonsymptomatic woman. CONCLUSION(S): Differences warrant further study, a larger sample, and additional measures using hormone assay to establish connections between stress reactions in the family, endometriosis symptoms, and response to treatment. Further research will document changes in physiology and in symptoms that accompany interruption of stress reactions with self-regulation training and family systems psychotherapy.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Family Characteristics Family Characteristics Stress, Psychological Stress, Psychological Adolescent Adolescent Biofeedback, Psychology Biofeedback, Psychology Electroencephalography Electroencephalography Family Family Female Female Humans

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 (31)

Cited by (20)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-29T06:15:59.360273+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:03:04.870308+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK