‘Invisible’ Microscopic Endometriosis: A Review

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AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09

This review argues that increasing surgical magnification can visualize nearly all endometriosis, suggesting that "invisible" microscopic endometriosis is an unproven concept hindering research progress.

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Abstract

Endometriosis can have very subtle visual appearances. All theories of origin imply some early and presumably tiny form of the disease which potentially cannot be detected by the unaided human eye. A review of the literature indicates that with increasing magnification at surgery, virtually all endometriosis can be visualized. Invisible microscopic endometriosis is an unproven entity which retards intellectual progress in the study of this disease.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Biopsy Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Laparoscopy Peritoneal Diseases Peritoneal Diseases Peritoneum Peritoneum

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 (17)

Cited by (39)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:12:50.257867+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK