Traumatic Experiences Associated With Endometriosis

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 19, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Traumatic experiences are independently associated with endometriosis, according to a study published online Feb. 5 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Dora Koller, Ph.D., from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues examined the relationship between traumatic experiences and endometriosis. The analysis included individual-level genotypic and phenotypic data from 8,276 patients with endometriosis and 240,117 female controls participating in the U.K. Biobank, as well as genome-wide information from a large meta-analysis.

The researchers found that women with endometriosis were more likely to report childhood and adulthood traumatic experiences and stressful events (e.g., contact trauma odds ratio, 1.28). An association was seen between endometriosis and emotional and physical trauma and sexual trauma in a latent-class analysis. Genetic correlation analyses revealed a link between endometriosis and multiple trauma-related outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder and childhood maltreatment. There was no interaction between polygenic risk scoring and different types of trauma events.

“The present study comprehensively investigated the impact of childhood and adulthood traumatic experiences and stressful events on endometriosis,” the authors write. “In particular, our findings highlight the potential association between contact traumas and endometriosis, which appears to be independent of the disease genetic predisposition.”

One author disclosed being the founder of EndoCare Therapeutics.

Abstract/Full Text