This is one of a series of news items from abstracts of studies presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine as complied by Dr. David Meldrum, Scientific Director of Reproductive Partners. We appreciate the enormous amount of work it takes to compile and comment on these abstracts.
Two oral presentations of interest to women dealing with endometriosis were presented at ASRM 2012.
In one, in a cohort of almost a million person-years of follow-up of female nurses, endometriosis was associated with an increased risk (RR 1.77, CI 1.50-2.08) of coronary heart disease (CHD). Inflammation, whether due to obesity, autoimmune diseases or even gingivitis, is associated with CHD. Endometriosis patients should be be aware regarding ways to counteract inflammation such as taking omega-3’s, maximizing antioxidant intake, reducing fat and sugar, and consuming an anti-inflammatory diet stressing less or no meat and maximal vegetable intake.
In another, the genetic component for endometriosis was validated by whole genome sequencing of 19 endometriosis patients identified 13 genes strongly associated with the disease. Mothers with the disease should consider alerting their daughters to be on the alert for symptoms of the condition when they reach reproductive age.