Trends in pelvic pain symptoms over 2 years of follow-up among adolescents and young adults with and without endometriosis

Naoko Sasamoto, Amy L Shafrir, Britani M Wallace, Britani Wallace, Allison F Vitonis, Cameron J Fraer, Cameron Fraer, Jenny Sadler Gallagher, Mary DePari, Marzieh Ghiasi, Marc R Laufer, Christine B Sieberg, Amy D DiVasta, Andrew Schrepf, Sawsan As-Sanie, Sawsan As‐Sanie, Kathryn L Terry, Stacey A Missmer
Pain · 2022 · vol. 164(3) , pp. 613–624 · doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002747 · PMID:35947080 · W4292513197
article OA: green CC0 ⤵ 17 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study tracked pelvic pain symptoms over two years in adolescents and young adults, finding that while dysmenorrhea and dyspareunia remained static among endometriosis cases, acyclic pelvic pain significantly improved.

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Abstract

ABSTRACT: We described trends in pelvic pain characteristics over 2 years of follow-up among adolescents and adults with and without endometriosis participating in the longitudinal observational cohort of the Women's Health Study: From Adolescence to Adulthood, using data reported at baseline and at years 1 and 2 of follow-up. Participants completed a questionnaire at baseline (between November 2012 and May 2019) and annually thereafter that included validated measures of severity, frequency, and life interference of dysmenorrhea, acyclic pelvic pain, and dyspareunia. Our study population included 620 participants with surgically confirmed endometriosis (rASRM stage I/II = 95%) and 671 community-based and hospital-based controls, with median age = 19 and 24 years, respectively. The proportion reporting hormone use varied across the 3 years ranging from 88% to 92% for cases and 56% to 58% for controls. At baseline, endometriosis cases were more likely to report severe, frequent, and life-interfering dysmenorrhea, acyclic pelvic pain, and dyspareunia compared with controls. Among cases, frequency and severity of dysmenorrhea and dyspareunia were relatively static across 2 years. However, acyclic pelvic pain improved. Severe acyclic pain decreased from 69% at baseline to 46% at year 2. Daily pain decreased from 28% to 14%, and life interference from 68% to 38%. Trends among controls remained fairly stable across 2 years. Among endometriosis cases who completed the questionnaire at all 3 time points, 18% reported persistent, severe acyclic pelvic pain at all 3 time points. Over time, different trends were observed by pelvic pain type among endometriosis cases and controls, supporting the importance of assessing multidimensional features of pelvic pain.

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Outcome instruments

rASRM

Condition tags

mesh:D004412mesh:D004414mesh:D004715mesh:D017699endometriosisdysmenorrheadyspareunia

MeSH descriptors

Dyspareunia Dyspareunia Dyspareunia Dyspareunia Dyspareunia Dyspareunia Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Adolescent Adolescent Adolescent Adolescent Adolescent Adult Adult

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 (54)

Cited by (17)

Source provenance

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