Premenstrual spotting for two or more days is associated with endometriosis in women with infertility, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Ryan J. Heitmann, D.O., from the Madigan Healthcare System in Tacoma, Wash., and colleagues examined the prevalence of endometriosis in women with premenstrual spotting in a retrospective cohort study. Participants included 80 women who presented to the infertility clinic for evaluation and underwent laparoscopic assessment for infertility.
The researchers found that in subfertile women who reported premenstrual spotting for two or more days, endometriosis was significantly more prevalent than in women without this symptom (89 versus 26 percent; P < 0.0001). The presence of premenstrual spotting for two or more days was significantly associated with the presence of endometriosis and red vesicular lesion type (odds ratios, 16 and 52.6, respectively), in multinomial logistic regression analysis.
”In this cohort of women with infertility, premenstrual spotting of greater than or equal to two days was associated strongly with histologically confirmed endometriosis and a better predictor than dysmenorrhea or dyspareunia of finding endometriosis at laparoscopy,” the authors write.
