EPIDEMIOLOGY OF ENDOMETRIOSIS
Section snippets
Large Studies of Hospitalized or Surgical Cohorts
Endometriosis can be definitively diagnosed only during the course of pelvic surgery, usually laparoscopy or laparotomy. Therefore, most prevalence estimates have been made on the basis of such surgical populations and are therefore highly selective. Table 1 presents the results of a few large studies in which hospital discharge data or surgical records (usually from laparoscopy or laparotomy) were reviewed over a specified period. The earliest of these studies reported on the prevalence of
RISK FACTORS
Numerous studies related to the epidemiology of endometriosis have been published. Various risk factors for the disease examined in these studies include (1) sociodemographic characteristics21, 22, 68 such as age,2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 27, 35, 38, 40, 42, 44, 51, 54, 55, 56, 61, 65, 70, 73, 75, 76, 78, 80, 84, 85, 88 race,3, 5, 13, 16, 17, 32, 39, 44, 55, 60, 71, 73, 78, 84 socioeconomic status,1, 4, 5, 7, 44, 56, 68, 73, 78 education,13, 55, 59, 70, 71, 73, 75, 78 and marital
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Our knowledge about the disease patterns and risk factors of endometriosis is hampered by our inability to diagnose the disease in the general population. To truly understand the epidemiology of endometriosis, population-based cohort studies must become feasible. With the advent of fine-needle laparoscopy, women with less severe symptomatology may be more likely to be diagnosed. Only with the development of a noninvasive biomarker of disease, however, will it be possible to truly study the
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Cited by (0)
Address reprint requests to Brenda Eskenazi, PhD School of Public Health University of California 140 Warren Hall Berkeley, CA 94720–7360
This work was supported by Grant Nos. R824761-01 from the Environmental Protection Agency, R01 ES07171-01 from the National Institutes of Health, and EA-M1977 from the Endometriosis Association.
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From the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California