The gut microbiota and endometriosis: From pathogenesis to diagnosis and treatment

Rui Qin, Gengren Tian, Junbao Liu, Lu Cao
Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022 · vol. 12 , pp. 1069557 · doi:10.3389/fcimb.2022.1069557 · PMID:36506023 · PMC9729346 · W4309842503
review OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 35 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This review explores the link between gut microbiota imbalances and endometriosis, covering its potential role in pathogenesis, diagnosis, and future treatment strategies.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This paper reviews evidence linking gut microbiota composition and function to the development and diagnosis of endometriosis, focusing on proposed mechanisms involving estrogen metabolism, immune/inflammatory signaling, and related microbial metabolites. Across human studies and animal modeling cited in the review, it reports associations such as altered gut diversity and changes in taxa like increased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratios, with several taxa correlated with inflammatory markers and urinary estrogens, alongside pathways including bile acid biosynthesis and alpha-linolenic acid metabolism that may support biomarker development; it also notes a limitation that the causal mechanisms and specific drivers (e.g., triggers for microbial β-glucuronidase production) remain unclear and require further research. It further highlights that delayed diagnosis due to reliance on invasive procedures motivates the search for noninvasive gut-derived diagnostic markers, including microbial candidates reported in intestinal or peritoneal fluids. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it reviews how gut microbiota dysbiosis is implicated in endometriosis pathogenesis and potential diagnostic targets.

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Abstract

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease, that often leads to pain and infertility. At present, the specific pathogenesis of endometriosis has not been clarified, but it may be closely related to an imbalance of sex hormones in the body, ectopic hyperplasia stimulated by immune inflammation, and invasion and escape based on tumor characteristics. Gut microbiota is associated with many inflammatory diseases. With the further study of the gut microbiota, people are paying increasing attention to its relationship with endometriosis. Studies have shown that there is an association between the gut microbiota and endometriosis. The specific ways and mechanisms by which the gut microbiota participates in endometriosis may involve estrogen, immune inflammation, and tumor characteristics, among others. Therefore, in the future, regulating gut microbiota disorders in various ways can help in the treatment of endometriosis patients. This study reviewed the research on the gut microbiota and endometriosis in order to provide ideas for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

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Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Gastrointestinal Microbiome Estrogens Estrogens Estrogens Estrogens Estrogens Estrogens

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.

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Cited by (35)

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