From Finland : How to increase health issues in endometriosis patients

Is endometriosis a risk factor for other health issues ?

Key Points

Highlights:

• Endometriosis seems to have an increased risk of other ailments like immune-related diseases, bowel disorders, migraine, mental, and cardiovascular diseases.

Importance:  

• There are only a few studies systematically assessing endometriosis-related overall comorbidity in prospective population cohorts.
• Some of the earlier studies possess limitations in considering secondary factors, the temporality of comorbidities, and the associations between morbidity and types of endometriosis separately.

What's done here:

• Possible prevalences of "nongynecological diagnoses' and comorbidities in women with endometriosis by exploring the International Classification of Diseases diagnoses in a prospective population cohort were performed in the Finnish population.

Key Results:

• Women with endometriosis had approximately twice as likely to have hospital-based nongynecological disorders as women without endometriosis, such as allergies, infectious diseases, pain-causing diseases, and respiratory diseases.
• In addition, the comorbidities seemed to appear at a significantly younger age among women with endometriosis than in their non-endometriosis counterparts.

Limitations:

• The participation rate is quite high (72%), but in spite of this, there could be a bias due to those not being reached or participating.
• Another possible limitation is that the cohort consists of a rather homogeneous female population of the Finnish race where the findings may not be generalizable worldwide. In spite of this, many of the results are in accordance with the previous publications.
• This research assessed a data set of women up to the age of 50 years, which could restrict identifying associations between endometriosis and those diseases developing at an older age.

Lay Summary

Dr. Henna-Riikka Rossi and associates from the University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland have published their recent prospective cohort study on possible existing comorbidities of endometriosis patients in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent chronic ailment affecting about 6-10% of women which may be associated with painful periods, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain, abdominal bloating, nausea, fatigue, and sometimes depression, anxiety, and infertility. Besides, this common gynecological disorder seems to have an increased risk of other health issues like immune diseases, bowel disorders, migraine, mental, and cardiovascular diseases.

There have been relatively few studies assessing endometriosis-related overall comorbidity in prospective population cohorts. Some of the previous reports also have some limitations in considering secondary factors, the temporality of comorbidities, and the associations between morbidity and types of endometriosis separately.

This study from Oulu University, Oulu, Finland searched for possible prevalences of nongynecological diagnoses and comorbidities in women with endometriosis by exploring the International Classification of Diseases diagnoses in a prospective population cohort. The endometriosis population consisted of 349 women, based on the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966, the data for this research were collected at the age of 46 years through postal questionnaires and/or through clinical examinations.

This population-based study revealed an independent association of endometriosis with several health issues and symptoms by the end of fertile age. Women with endometriosis presented more often with migraine, musculoskeletal diseases, mood disorders, immune and respiratory diseases, as well as aberrant clinical and laboratory results in comparison to those without endometriosis. Besides, the comorbidities seemed to appear at a significantly younger age among women with endometriosis than in their non-endometriosis counterparts.

One of the take-home messages of this novel study is to the physicians dealing with endometriosis to give more attention and target resources in healthcare systems to achieve more efficient care in multidisciplinary settings for endometriosis patients.

It is worth mentioning several potential limitations for this research, the participation rate in this follow-up study was 72%, which might put be a bias due to those not reached or participated. Another point is that the cohort consists of female population of Finnish race where the findings may not be generalizable worldwide. This study was on data set of women up to the age of 50 years, which might have limited identifying associations between endometriosis and those diseases developing later on.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36496274/