Deep Endometriosis Surgery and Women’s Quality of Life

The physical health of women with deep endometriosis surgery is worse than normal but other aspects of quality of life are better.

Key Points

Highlights: 

• The physical and social functions and overall physical health of women who underwent deep endometriosis surgery are worse than normal.
• In contrast, their bodily pain, emotional role, vitality, and overall mental health are better than normal.

Importance:

• The mental and physical health of women surgically treated for deep endometriosis should be improved.

What's done here:

• Researchers conducted an observational cross-sectional study in 112 women, ages 18 to 48 who were surgically treated for deep endometriosis.
• Their quality of life was compared with healthy women along with endometriosis type taking the type of surgery into account.

Key results:

• Physical but not mental health positively correlated with age in women with endometriosis who were treated surgically.
• The physical function, social function, and overall physical health of women with endometriosis treated surgically were significantly lower than normal.
• The body pain, emotional role, mental health, vitality, and overall mental health of women surgically treated for deep endometriosis was higher than normal.
• The anatomical compartment of endometriosis, reintervention, bowel nodule resection, and fertility preservation did not make a difference in the quality of life. 

Limitations:

• This was a retrospective study and the quality of life of women could not be assessed before surgery. 
• It was not possible to compare the quality of life of women with deep infiltrating endometriosis who have or have not had surgery.

Lay Summary

The physical and social functions as well as the overall physical health is worse than normal among Spanish women who underwent surgery for deep endometriosis, reported a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. The bodily pain, emotional role, vitality, and overall mental health of these women is however better. 

“These areas could be considered protective factors in this disease,” the researchers wrote and added that since the quality of life is of great importance in adjustments in mental and physical health, improvements are needed in these areas of quality of life in women who have had surgery to treat deep endometriosis.

Deep endometriosis surgery can have a severe negative impact on women’s quality of life.

Here, a team of researchers from Spain compared the quality of life of 112 women, ages 18 to 48 who had surgery to treat deep endometriosis to that of healthy women. 

The results showed that physical health was positively correlated with age in women with endometriosis who underwent surgery. This was not the case for mental health. 

Moreover, the physical and social functions and the overall physical health of women with endometriosis who have had deep endometriosis surgery were significantly lower than that of healthy women. 

On the contrary, the body pain, emotional role, mental health, vitality, and overall mental health of women with endometriosis who have had surgery was significantly higher compared to healthy women.

There were no statistical differences in women’s quality of life based on the anatomical compartment of endometriosis, reintervention, bowel nodule resection, and fertility preservation.

The article which is a comparison with the Spanish standardized values was recently published in the "Journal of Clinical Medicine".

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36294513/