High prevalence of endometriosis in infertile women with normal ovulation and normospermic partners

Christel Meuleman, Meuleman C, Birgit Vandenabeele, Vandenabeele B, Steffen Fieuws, Fieuws S, Spiessens C, Carl Spiessens, Dirk Timmerman, D. Timmerman, Thomas D'Hooghe, Thomas D’Hooghe, D'Hooghe T
Fertility and sterility · 2008 · vol. 92(1) , pp. 68–74 · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2008.04.056 · PMID:18684448 · W2005542169
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 463 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This study investigated endometriosis prevalence in infertile women with normal ovulation and normospermic partners, finding a high occurrence of the condition.

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

Abstract

ObjectiveTo determine the prevalence of histologically proven endometriosis in a subset of infertile women.DesignRetrospective case series with electronic file search and multivariable logistic regression analysis.SettingTertiary academic fertility center.Patient(s)Two hundred twenty-one infertile women without previous surgical diagnosis for infertility with regular cycles (variation, 21-35 days) whose partners have a normal semen analysis.Intervention(s)Diagnostic laparoscopy and, if necessary, operative laparoscopy with CO(2) laser excision.Main outcome measurement(s)The prevalence of endometriosis and of fertility-reducing nonendometriotic tubal and/or uterine pathology.Result(s)The prevalence of endometriosis was 47% (104/221), including stage I (39%, 41/104), stage II (24%, 25/104), stage III (14%, 15/104), and stage IV (23%, 23/104) endometriosis, and was comparable in patients with (54%, 61/113) and without (40%, 43/108) pelvic pain. The prevalence of fertility-reducing nonendometriotic tubal and/or uterine pathology was 29% in all patients (15% in women with and 40% in women without endometriosis). A multivariate logistic regression model including pain, ultrasound data, age, duration of infertility, and type of fertility was not or not sufficiently reliable for the prediction of endometriosis according to the revised American Fertility Society (rAFS) classifications I-II and rAFS III-IV, respectively.Conclusion(s)Reproductive surgery is indicated in infertile women belonging to the study population, regardless of pain symptoms or transvaginal ultrasound results, since half of them have endometriosis and 40% of those without endometriosis have fertility-reducing pelvic pathology.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

dysmenorrheadyspareuniaendometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Infertility, Female Spermatozoa Adult Belgium Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Dyspareunia Dyspareunia Dyspareunia Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Infertility, Female

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 (48)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

crossref
last seen: 2026-05-17T01:00:23.337009+00:00
europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-20T06:14:21.026120+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:14:30.652814+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK