Endometriosis comorbidity and its clinical significance
Comorbidity is one of the urgent interdisciplinary problems of modern medicine, including gynecology. From the standpoint of diagnosing endometriosis, the assessment of the comorbidity is one of the most effective and affordable methods of primary screening for this group of female patients. However, patient complaints, clinical presentations, and gynecological diseases are mainly evaluated in real clinical practice, while a somatic history is not fully assessed and sometimes completely ignored. Nevertheless, the relationship of endometriosis to a non-gynecological disease may be of great clinical significance. The modern Russian and foreign literature sources rather widely discuss the comorbidity of endometriosis with thyroid, cardiovascular, and fibrocystic diseases, and cancers. However, a wide range of concomitant non-gynecological diseases, which is, nevertheless, quite common and is of prognostic significance for the diagnosis of endometriosis, remains unaddressed.Chernukha G.E., Pronina V.A.
The review presents the data demonstrating the common etiology and pathogenesis of endometriosis with low body mass index (BMI), acne, migraine, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The comorbidity of endometriosis with low BMI and acne has been insufficiently studied due to lack of a strong evidence base for this relationship. Nevertheless, these comorbidities are not only easy to diagnose at a primary outpatient visit, but they also have a sufficient degree of specificity to identify women at risk for the disease along with well-known disorders, such as migraine and IBS.
Conclusion: Information about the comorbidity of endometriosis with both gynecological diseases and non-gynecological ones can serve as the basis for appropriate patient counseling at the initial examination stage. This will assist in reducing the time to diagnosis and in minimizing the use of invasive research methods.
Authors’ contributions: Pronina V.A. – material collection and processing; Pronina V.A., Chernukha G.E. – writing the text; Chernukha G.E. – editing.
Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that there are no possible conflicts of interest.
Funding: This investigation has not been sponsored.
For citation: Chernukha G.E., Pronina V.A.
Endometriosis comorbidity and its clinical significance.
Akusherstvo i Ginekologiya/Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2023; 1: 27-34 (in Russian)
https://dx.doi.org/10.18565/aig.2022.252
Keywords
endometriosis
comorbidity
body mass index
acne migraine
irritable bowel syndrome
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Received 25.10.2022
Accepted 28.12.2022
About the Authors
Galina E. Chernukha, Dr. Med. Sci., Professor, Chief Researcher, obstetrician-gynecologist at the Department of Gynecological Endocrinology, Academician V.I. Kulakov NMRC for OG&P, Ministry of Health of Russia, +7(985)999-60-00, c-galina1@yandex.ru, 117997, Russia, Moscow, Ac. Oparin str., 4.Veronika A. Pronina, obstetrician-gynecologist, PhD student, Academician V.I. Kulakov NMRC for OG&P, Ministry of Health of Russia, +7(916)025-86-26,
ver22595@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4566-4065, 117997, Russia, Moscow, Ac. Oparin str., 4.
Corresponding author: Galina E. Chernukha, c-galina1@yandex.ru