Prevalence of endometriosis in asymptomatic women.

Jeremy M. Rawson, J M Rawson
The Journal of reproductive medicine · 1991 · vol. 36(7) , pp. 513–5 · PMID:1834839 · W16522457
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 152 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This study found endometriosis in 45.3% of asymptomatic women undergoing laparoscopy for other reasons, suggesting its prevalence may be underestimated.

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

Abstract

Numerous studies have identified the presence of endometriosis by its "classic" morphologic characteristics in high-risk patient populations. Recent histologic documentation of "subtle" laparoscopic appearances of this condition suggests that many of the earlier studies may have underestimated its prevalence in the general population. We evaluated the frequency of endometriosis in 86 women who denied having the symptoms typical of the condition and who underwent laparoscopy for other indications (acute pain, sterilization, etc.). Of those patients, 45.3% were found to have definitive evidence of pelvic endometriosis (stage I, 32.5%; II, 9.3%, III, 1.1%; IV, 2.3%). The exclusion of nine patients whose only laparoscopic indication was infertility or tubal occlusion resulted in a 44% finding of endometriosis, while 39% of the patients with documented fertility exhibited endometriosis. Forty-four percent of a subset of asymptomatic women undergoing laparoscopic evaluation prior to vaginal hysterectomy were found to have evidence of endometriosis; all but one had stage I, judged amendable to laser excision. The data suggest that endometriosis may be a more common peritoneal finding in asymptomatic, fertile women than previously believed.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Uterine Neoplasms Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Laparoscopy Neoplasm Staging Prevalence Severity of Illness Index Uterine Neoplasms Uterine Neoplasms Uterine Neoplasms

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 (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-22T06:15:23.361955+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:12:00.397535+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK