January 2007 Indian scientists have identified the STAT6 gene G2964A 3′-UTR polymorphism as possibly increasing women’s risk of developing endometriosis. Researchers in Southern India hypothesised that a common G2964A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of the STAT6 gene, known to be associated with common immunological diseases such as asthma and Crohn’s disease, […]

January 2007 Women who carry the progesterone receptor (PR) gene allele +331A appear to have a reduced risk for deep infiltrating endometriosis compared with other women K van Kaam and team from the University of Maastricht set out to determine the frequencies of progesterone receptor gene polymorphisms in women with deep infiltrating endometriosis because alterations […]

December 2006 Research published in Human Reproduction by the collaborative International Endogene Study suggests that there may be one or more high-penetrance susceptibility loci for endometriosis with (near-)Mendelian inheritance. The collaborative International Endogene Study consists of two data sets (Oxford and Australia) comprising 1176 families with multiple affecteds. The aim of the research team was […]

December 2006 At the 62nd Annual Meeting of the ASRM several new studies were highlighted for the impact nutrition has on the reproductive system Dian Shepperson Mills presented how nutritional therapy provides an effective method of improving fertility rates and reducing abdominal pain in women with endometriosis. She promotes an integrated medical approach to improve […]

November 2006 First prize for technical achievement was awarded to Dr Steven Palter at the 62nd annual meeting of the ASRM for a new surgery technique that enables surgeons to see tumours and other pathologies invisible with previous methods. Illumination of certain tissues with specific light wavelengths results in autoflourescence of the tissue, which can […]

November 2006 Researchers at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany, suggest that endometriosis can arise through metaplasia The team set out to compare the expression of genes playing a decisive role during the embryonic development of the female genital tract (WNT4, WNT5A, WNT7A, PAX8) in the peritoneum of patients with endometriosis and control patients. An […]

November 2006 Researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, suggest that the presence of endometriosis, including stages III and IV, does not affect IVF outcome. This study was retrospective, with matched case-controls, set in an academic tertiary referral centre. The study group consisted of 87 women with laparoscopically diagnosed endometriosis, and the control group consisted […]

October 2006 The presence of increased activated and degranulating mast cells in deeply infiltrating endometriosis, which are the most painful lesions, and the close histological relationship between mast cells and nerves strongly suggest that mast cells could contribute to the development of pain and hyperalgesia in endometriosis, possibly by a direct effect on nerve structures. […]

October 2006 This prospective clinical trial shows that women without significant decrease in pain after complete surgical excision of endometriosis should be considered for MRI to ascertain whether adenomyosis might be the actual cause of pain. Fifty-three women with chronic pelvic pain underwent pre-operative MR imaging to measure uterine JZ thickness, surgical excision, and pathologic […]

October 2006 Researchers in Australia have identified more nerve fibres in peritoneal endometriotic lesions than in normal peritoneum Peritoneal endometriotic lesions and normal peritoneum were prepared from women with and without endometriosis (n = 40 and 36, respectively). Specimens were also prepared from endosalpingiosis lesions (n = 9). These sections were stained immunohistochemically with antibodies […]