Microbiome and Immunologic Analysis - Women With Endometriosis

Summary

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Description

Endometriosis is a chronic gynecologic condition where implants of endometrial glands and stroma are present outside of the uterus. It occurs in 6-10% of women of reproductive age and is characterized by dysmenorrhea, chronic pelvic pain, dyspareunia, or infertility. In addition to symptom burden, t...

Endometriosis is a chronic gynecologic condition where implants of endometrial glands and stroma are present outside of the uterus. It occurs in 6-10% of women of reproductive age and is characterized by dysmenorrhea, chronic pelvic pain, dyspareunia, or infertility. In addition to symptom burden, there are significant direct costs related to diagnosis and treatment of disease, as well as indirect costs related to absenteeism from school and work, loss of productivity, and unemployment. The estimated national economic burden in the United States related to these costs is approximately 78 billion dollars per year. While clinical signs and symptoms may be suggestive of endometriosis, the gold standard for diagnosis requires surgical confirmation of disease. The pathogenesis of endometriosis is complex and likely multifactorial with genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and immunologic factors. An increasing number of studies have also suggested the role of the microbiome in human health and development of disease. This study aims to investigate possible differences in the microbiome and immunologic factors that could contribute to pathogenesis of this disease. Findings from this study could potentially contribute to the development of of a less invasive, non-surgical diagnostic test for endometriosis.

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