A new angle on endometriosis

Endometriosis is thought to affect some one in ten women, particularly of reproductive age, although the incidence rate is thought to be quite a bit higher with women often just being told they have “painful periods”. The condition involves uterine-like tissue growing outside the uterine cavity. When this tissue grows where it shouldn’t, such as on the ovaries, bladder, fallopian tubes and bowel it can have devastating symptoms such as fatigue, infertility, along with pain in the pelvic area, bladder, and during sex.

Its cause is still unclear. Women are between four and seven times more likely to be diagnosed if a first-degree relative has had the diagnosis, suggesting it could have both epigenetic and genetic causes, but there is no clear pattern among families.

One large Swedish study just this year revealed that adverse life experiences between birth and age 16 such as having a parent abusing substances or moving home could increase a woman’s likelihood of suffering from the disease, with the suggestion that higher inflammation levels in the body could be to blame. This does, however, remain a theory.

But what is painfully clear is that endometriosis frequently seems to occur alongside other health conditions, being largely autoimmune ones.

Fortunately there has been something of a breakthrough in the mystery of the disease. Researchers scanned vast quantities of health and genetic data to map the entire genetic footprint of thousands of people and found minute differences that could be linked to different conditions. Said researchers then went further in looking to see if the one condition might cause another different one. Several spots in the human DNA were identified that seemed to influence both endometriosis and other autoimmune conditions such as MS or rheumatoid arthritis. The observations establish a good biological foundation for why these conditions tend to co-occur. Knowing that there is a relationship between the one condition and the other also means that patients can be closely monitored and potentially treated earlier for the other.

The findings also offer welcome hope for endometriosis sufferers in the form of new treatments, as current treatment options such as pain relief, contraception or surgery often tend to fall short. Clinical trials are still needed, but drugs already approved for the treatment of autoimmune conditions could also prove effective in alleviating endometriosis. Evidence is also suggesting that targeting inflammation (the immune response to autoimmune condition development) could be another way to home in on endometriosis.

Treatment options have long been restricted by the complexity of the condition and the historical lack of research into women’s health in itself. Now the wind seems to be changing. The knowledge of shared genetic roots between endometriosis and other conditions is yielding significant biological clues with the real chance of speeding up the treatment of endometriosis.