Endometrial Biopsy

THE modern study of the endometrium can rightly be said to date from Recamier's introduction of the curette. Immediately following was an era which witnessed the development of cellular pathology and shed great light on the organic diseases affecting the endometrium. Little progress was made in interpreting functional changes until Hitschmann and Adler's classic paper appeared in 1908. The rapid advances of the last two decades have made possible an experimental approach and this combined with a more enlightened understanding of various clinical phenomena has greatly broadened the scope of knowledge. In general, it may be said that the endometrium reflects the activity of the ovaries. In recent papers (1–4) we have presented evidence indicating that functional menstrual disorders result from ovarian failure. This may be primary, due to inherent ovarian disease, or secondary, due to extra-ovarian causes such as pituitary, thyroid or other endocrine disease and various types of constitutional disease.