Alexithymia in Women with Deep Endometriosis? A Pilot Study

Irene Melis, Mirian Agus, Nicola Pluchino, Attilio Di Spiezio Sardo, Pietro Litta, Gian Benedetto Melis, Stefano Angioni
In: Journal of Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Disorders · 2014 · vol. 6(1) , pp. 26–33 · doi:10.5301/je.5000172 · W2073535728
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 27 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This pilot study found that women with deep endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain exhibit significantly higher rates of alexithymia compared to healthy controls.

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Abstract

Objectives The aim of the study was to evaluate the presence of alexithymia in a group of patients with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain, and compare the results obtained, with those for a group of healthy controls. Methods Forty-one patients with pain and surgical diagnosis of deep endometriosis and 40 healthy controls were recruited for the study. All subjects were assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Moreover, the intensity of chronic pelvic pain and dysmenorrhea in patients was evaluated using a modified version of the Biberoglu-Behrman pain scale. In addition, the patients' state of general health was investigated with the SF-36. Results A positive score for alexithymia was achieved in 14.6% (n = 6) of patients with endometriosis, while the condition was absent in the control group. Alexithymia was indeterminate in 29.3% (n = 12) and 12.5% (n = 5) of patients and controls, respectively, and absent in 56.1% (n = 22) and 87.5% (n = 35). Intergroup differences were significant for 3 factors evaluated by the TAS-20. Discussion The present study underlined how women with endometriosis are significantly more alexithymic compared with controls.

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Outcome instruments

Biberoglu-Behrman

Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrhea

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 (39)

Cited by (27)

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