Increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease in women with endometriosis: a nationwide Danish cohort study

Tine Jess, Morten Frisch, Kristian Tore Jørgensen, Bo Vestergaard Pedersen, Nete Munk Nielsen
Gut · 2011 · vol. 61(9) , pp. 1279–1283 · doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2011-301095 · PMID:22184069 · W2129411539
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Women with endometriosis have an increased risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, even two decades after their endometriosis diagnosis.

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: An association between endometriosis and certain autoimmune diseases has been suggested. However, the impact of endometriosis on risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: To assess the risk of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) in an unselected nationwide Danish cohort of women with endometriosis. DESIGN: By use of national registers, 37 661 women hospitalised with endometriosis during 1977-2007 were identified. The relative risk of developing IBD after an endometriosis diagnosis was calculated as observed versus expected numbers and presented as standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) with 95% CIs. RESULTS: Women with endometriosis had a increased risk of IBD overall (SIR=1.5; 95% CI 1.4 to 1.7) and of UC (SIR=1.5; 95% CI 1.3 to 1.7) and CD (SIR=1.6; 95% CI 1.3 to 2.0) separately, even 20 years after a diagnosis of endometriosis (UC: SIR=1.5; 95% CI 1.1 to 2.1; CD: SIR=1.8; 95% CI 1.1 to 3.2). Restricting analyses to women with surgically verified endometriosis suggested even stronger associations (UC: SIR=1.8; 95% CI 1.4 to 2.3; CD: SIR=1.7; 95% CI 1.2 to 2.5). CONCLUSION: The risk of IBD in women with endometriosis was increased even in the long term, hence suggesting a genuine association between the diseases, which may either reflect common immunological features or an impact of endometriosis treatment with oral contraceptives on risk of IBD.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Colitis, Ulcerative Crohn Disease Endometriosis Adult Aged Cohort Studies Colitis, Ulcerative Colitis, Ulcerative Crohn Disease Crohn Disease Denmark Denmark Endometriosis Female Follow-Up Studies Humans Middle Aged Risk Factors Young Adult

Citation neighborhood

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Cited by (50)

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