How Does Endometriosis Affect Patients Quality of Life?

New insights from a Spanish study

Key Points

Highlights: 

• Health-related quality of life is significantly impaired in adult Spanish women with endometriomas and deep infiltrating endometriosis.

Importance:

• This finding may have important implications for prevention, clinical practice, and intervention in women with endometriosis.

What's done here:

• Researchers conducted a case-control study in 99 adult Spanish women with endometriomas or deep infiltrating endometriosis and 157 controls. 

Key results:

• Women with the disease had significantly worse physical scores compared to controls.
• Women with the disease also had lower scores on seven out of the eight scales on the Short Form-12v2 questionnaire.
• There were no significant differences in the mental health scale scores of women with the disease and those without.

Limitations:

• Because this was a case-control design, there may be selection and measurement bias.
• The disease may have been misclassified in some women.

Lay Summary

Health-related quality of life is significantly lower in patients with endometriomas or deep infiltrating endometriosis compared to women without the disease. This is according to the results of a recent study in adult Spanish women that was published in the "International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health". 

This is an important finding because it may have important implications in terms of prevention, clinical practice, and intervention.

In order to assess health-related quality of life in adult Spanish women with endometriomas or deep infiltrating endometriosis, a team of researchers led by Dr. Alberto Manuel Torres-Cantero conducted a case-control study in 99 women with the disease and 157 controls.

The researchers assessed the results of the participants' physical and gynecological examinations and answers to health questionnaires including the Short Form-12v2. The Short Form-12v2 questionnaire is a survey to determine health-related quality of life. It comprises 12 questions that measure eight health domains. These are general health, physical functioning, physical role, emotional role, bodily pain, mental health, vitality, and social functioning.

The results showed that women with endometriomas or deep infiltrating endometriosis had significantly worse physical scores compared to women without the disease. 

Women with the disease also had lower scores on seven out of the eight scales. However, the study found no significant differences between the two groups of women in terms of mental health scale scores, unlike previous studies. According to the authors, this could be due to dissimilarities in study populations or disease severity.

Health-related quality of life is defined as an individual’s perceived physical and mental health over time.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34073723/