Clinical Assistant Professor,
Divya Shah (MD), at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and her team
analyzed the data from Nurses' Health Study II that had followed the health
record of 116,430 female nurses aged between 25 and 42 years in the USA since
September 1989 for almost twenty years.
During 20 years of the study,
5504 women were diagnosed with endometriosis using laparoscopy. The
participants answered questionnaires once in every two years, which
recorded their weight, height, waist and hip circumference and any diagnosis of
endometriosis.
Researches based on their
analysis found
women who had lower
BMI both at 18 years of age and at present were more prone to have
endometriosis. This association was more pronounced in infertile women.
It was also noted
that women who were very obese at 18 years
of age had 41% lower risk of developing endometriosis.
Though a strong relation between
BMI and endometriosis had been revealed, the authors state that this finding
does not indicate that lower BMI causes endometriosis.
The exact mechanisms involved with endometriosis are still unclear and
needs more research to identify the cause. "
Our finding
that lean women have a higher risk is useful information for doctors when
making a diagnosis. It also means that future research can focus on these women
to discover the causes, so that we can design treatments that could help
prevent the condition developing", opine the authors.
Source: Medindia