Endometriosis

Maurizio Cutolo, Simone Ferrero
In: Diagnostic Criteria in Autoimmune Diseases · 2008 · pp. 271–275 · doi:10.1007/978-1-60327-285-8_51 · W4246447368
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Abstract

Endometriosis is a benign, estrogen-dependent, gynecological disorder associated with pelvic pain and infertility. It affects between 10 and 47% of women undergoing surgery because of pain symptoms and/or infertility. Pain and infertility represent the major clinical problems of women with endometriosis. Several serum markers have been proposed for the diagnosis of endometriosis (including CA-125, CA-19.9, sICAM-1, PP14, and IL-6), but none of them has been proved to have sufficient accuracy to be used in clinical setting. It is possible to suspect the presence of endometriosis on the basis of patient’s history and gynecological examination, but imaging techniques are required to confirm the presence of the lesions and establish the severity of the disease. The gold standard for the diagnosis of endometriosis is the visual inspection of the pelvis at laparoscopy. The treatment of endometriosis may be medical, surgical or combined. Medical therapy aims primarily to decrease the intensity of pain symptoms but there is no evidence that it can reduce the extent of the lesion; exogenous estrogens should be avoided. Surgical excision of endometriotic lesions is associated with improvements not only in pain symptoms but also in quality of life, and it can usually be performed by laparoscopy.

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endometriosisinfertility

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