Can symptomatology help in the diagnosis of endometriosis? Findings from a national case–control study—Part 1

KD Ballard, K D Ballard, H E Seaman, HE Seaman, C S de Vries, CS de Vries, J T Wright, J. Timothy Wright
BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology · 2008 · vol. 115(11) , pp. 1382–1391 · doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.2008.01878.x · PMID:18715240 · W2152861053
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 370 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This case-control study found that abdominopelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, subfertility, dyspareunia, ovarian cysts, and more frequent doctor consultations were significantly associated with endometriosis diagnosis.

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

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the value of patient-reported symptoms in diagnosing endometriosis. DESIGN: A national case-control study. SETTING: Data from the UK General Practice Research Database for years 1992-2001. SAMPLE: A total of 5540 women aged 15-55 years, diagnosed with endometriosis, each matched to four controls without endometriosis. METHODS: Data were analysed to determine whether specific symptoms were highly indicative of endometriosis. Odds ratios for these symptoms were derived by conditional logistic regression analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Symptoms associated with endometriosis. RESULTS: The prevalence of diagnosed endometriosis was 1.5%. A greater proportion of women with endometriosis had abdominopelvic pain, dysmenorrhoea or menorrhagia (73%) compared with controls (20%). Compared with controls, women with endometriosis had increased risks of abdominopelvic pain (OR 5.2 [95% CI: 4.7-5.7]), dysmenorrhoea (OR 8.1 [95% CI: 7.2-9.3]), menorrhagia (OR 4.0 [95% CI: 3.5-4.5]), subfertility (OR 8.2 [95% CI: 6.9-9.9]), dyspareunia and/or postcoital bleeding (OR 6.8 [95% CI: 5.7-8.2]), and ovarian cysts (OR 7.3 [95% CI: 5.7-9.4]), and of being diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (OR 1.6 [95% CI: 1.3-1.8]) or pelvic inflammatory disease (OR 3.0 [95% CI: 2.5-3.6]). Women with endometriosis were also found to consult the doctor more frequently than the controls and were twice as likely to have time off work. CONCLUSIONS: Specific symptoms and frequent medical consultation are associated with endometriosis and appear useful in the diagnosis. Endometriosis may coexist with or be misdiagnosed as pelvic inflammatory disease or IBS.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004412mesh:D004414mesh:D004715endometriosisdysmenorrheadyspareuniairritable_bowel_syndrome

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Adolescent Adult Body Mass Index Case-Control Studies Dysmenorrhea Dyspareunia Dyspareunia Endometriosis Endometriosis Family Practice Family Practice Female Humans Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Irritable Bowel Syndrome Irritable Bowel Syndrome Menorrhagia Menorrhagia

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.

References (39)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:14:24.299271+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK