According to an article in My Health News Daily, women with the most severe form of endometriosis happen to be unusually attractive. Researchers in Italy speculate that the qualities that led to the women's good looks also predisposed them to the painful gynecological condition.
What???
In the study, independent observers rated 31 percent of women with severe endometriosis as attractive or very attractive, while just 8 percent of women with milder endometriosis, and 9 percent of women without the condition were rated that highly.
"Several researchers believe that a general phenotype exists which is associated with the disease," said study researcher Dr. Paolo Vercellini, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Universita degli Studi in Milan.
It may be that a more feminine body type is the result of the same physical characteristics that predispose women to develop severe endometriosis, Vercellini said.
Female attractiveness is linked with higher estrogen levels, and it's possible that the hormone "might favor the development of aggressive and infiltrating endometriotic lesions, particularly in the most feminine subjects," the researchers wrote in their study.
The study was published online Sept. 17 in the journal Fertility and Sterility.