Endometriosis and Body Fat Distribution

Susan E. McCann, Jo L. Freudenheim, Sherri L. Darrow, Ronald E. Batt, MARIA A. ZIELEZNY
In: Obstetrics & Gynecology · 1993 · vol. 82(4, Part 1) , pp. 545–549 · doi:10.1097/00006250-199310010-00014 · W4235356580
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 11 in-corpus citations
Full text JSON View on OpenAlex View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This case-control study found that lower waist-to-hip and waist-to-thigh ratios, indicating more peripheral body fat, were associated with increased endometriosis risk in women under 30.

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

⚙ AI-generated deep summary by qwen3.7-flash, 2026-09-14 · read from full text ⓘ

This case-control study investigated the association between body fat distribution and endometriosis risk by comparing 88 laparoscopically confirmed cases with age-matched controls. Researchers utilized logistic regression to analyze waist-to-hip and waist-to-thigh ratios derived from standardized physical measurements and interviews. The results indicated an inverse relationship between these anthropometric ratios and endometriosis risk specifically in women under thirty, suggesting a somatotype characterized by peripheral fat predominance in this younger demographic. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — specifically examining how body fat distribution patterns correlate with disease prevalence in different age groups.

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

Abstract

Objective: To examine the association of body fat distribution with risk of endometriosis in an effort to determine whether a specific somatotype is related to the disease. Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 88 laparoscopically confirmed cases of endometriosis, identified in a specialty gynecologic practice in western New York, and 88 age-matched friend controls. Data were collected by standardized personal interview, and body measurements were taken in a standardized fashion by one interviewer. Risk of endometriosis associated with body fat distribution, as expressed by waist-to-hip and waist-to-thigh ratios, was assessed using logistic regression. Results: For women under 30 years of age (45 cases, 46 controls), endometriosis was inversely related to both waist-to-hip ratio (odds ratio 6.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.01-19.01) and waist-to-thigh ratio (odds ratio 3.64, 95% CI 1.23-10.78). This effect was not evident among women aged 30 years and older (43 cases, 42 controls). Conclusion: Our results suggest a specific somatotype with a predominance of peripheral body fat among women with endometriosis. This finding may provide information useful in both the diagnosis and understanding of the disease etiology.(Obstet Gynecol 1993;82:545-9)
Full text 1,410 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · 4 sections · click to expand

Objective

To examine the association of body fat distribution with risk of endometriosis in an effort to determine whether a specific somatotype is related to the disease.

Methods

We conducted a case-control study of 88 laparoscopically confirmed cases of endometriosis, identified in a specialty gynecologic practice in western New York, and 88 age-matched friend controls. Data were collected by standardized personal interview, and body measurements were taken in a standardized fashion by one interviewer. Risk of endometriosis associated with body fat distribution, as expressed by waist-to-hip and waist-to-thigh ratios, was assessed using logistic regression.

Results

For women under 30 years of age (45 cases, 46 controls), endometriosis was inversely related to both waist-to-hip ratio (odds ratio 6.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.01-19.01) and waist-to-thigh ratio (odds ratio 3.64, 95% CI 1.23-10.78). This effect was not evident among women aged 30 years and older (43 cases, 42 controls).

Conclusion

Our results suggest a specific somatotype with a predominance of peripheral body fat among women with endometriosis. This finding may provide information useful in both the diagnosis and understanding of the disease etiology.(Obstet Gynecol 1993;82:545-9)

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Condition tags

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.

Cited by (11)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-09-29T06:34:56.587159+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK