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Research Studies

ENDO: Endometriosis: Natural History, Diagnosis, and Outcomes

The overall purpose of this study is twofold:

1. to investigate the impact of environmental factors in relation to the etiology of endometriosis, particularly the role of persistent synthetic and naturally occurring compounds and lifestyle factors and risk of endometriosis; and
   
2. to assess the impact of choice of comparison group on etiologic determinants of endometriosis.

To achieve the study’s research goals, the following research objectives have been developed.

They are:

1. to determine which environmental chemicals, if any, confer an increased risk of developing disease while controlling for known and potential confounders;
   
2. to determine concentrations of environmental chemicals measured in adipose tissue, serum and urine that confer any increase in risk;
   
3. to assess the consistency of results by choice of biospecimen; and
   
4. to assess the consistency of results by choice of comparison group (women undergoing laparoscopy/laparotomy in whom no endometriosis is confirmed or women from the referent population who are not seeking gynecologic care). In all analyses, careful attention will be paid to body size and adiposity throughout the lifespan given the lipophilic nature of some study chemicals and the association of a lean body habitus with endometriosis.

In addition, the University of Utah will be collecting data and samples for familiality and genetic studies of endometriosis and other gynecologic health conditions.