Genetic variation and endometriosis risk

Endometriosis is a complex disease, caused by both genetic and environmental factors and their interaction. Finding causative genes for endometriosis through candidate gene association studies has been largely unsuccesful, because a) they rely on testing a plethora of potential aetiological hypotheses, and b) they have generally been very small and poorly designed. The concepts and design of the GWA and replication studies will be presented, along with preliminary results. It is anticipated that these results will provide the first breakthrough in understanding the pathophysiology of endometriosis.