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Senior Associate Consultant |
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Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology |
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James Robert McCord Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics |
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Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics |
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Emory University School of Medicine |
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Peritoneal endometriosis is a relatively common disease, whose prevalence in the general population is not entirely certain. From mostly uncontrolled clinical studies, an extraordinarily wide range of prevalence (0.7% to 82%) is noted [1]. This wide range of prevalence is due to inherent differences in the particular groups of women studied ("selection biases"). Therefore, women with the least risk of having endometriosis (asymptomatic parous women undergoing tubal sterilization) have been reported to have a low incidence (2%) whereas women with a high risk of having endometriosis (teenagers with pelvic pain severe enough to warrant laparoscopic investigation) have been reported to have a much higher prevalence (>50%) [2,3]. Endometriosis appears to be present in approximately 25% (range 4.5% to 82.0%) and 20% (range 2.1% to 70%) of women undergoing laparoscopy for pelvic pain and infertility, respectively [1]. |
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