What is endosalpingiosis?

Abstract

Objective: To describe the demographics and clinical presentation of endosalpingiosis. To compare endosalpingiosis with endometriosis, particularly in regards to infertility and chronic pelvic pain.

Design: Retrospective analysis.

Setting: Hospital.

Patient(s): We included women with a histologic diagnosis of endosalpingiosis, a second group with a histologic diagnosis of endometriosis, and a final group who had neither endosalpingiosis nor endometriosis, with histology reports after undergoing gynecologic surgery.

Intervention(s): None.

Main outcome measure(s): Infertility and chronic pelvic pain.

Result(s): We found that 34.5% of endosalpingiosis cases had concurrent endometriosis; 40% of the endosalpingiosis group were postmenopausal. Endometriosis was significantly associated with infertility (odds ratio [OR] 3.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-8.5) and chronic pelvic pain (OR 3.0, 95% CI 1.7-5.5). In contrast, there was no significant link between endosalpingiosis and infertility (OR 1.6, 95% CI 0.7-3.7) nor chronic pelvic pain (OR 0.8, 95% CI 0.5-1.5). Gynecologic malignancy occurred significantly more in premenopausal women with endosalpingiosis than in those without (OR 10.3, 95% CI 3.6-29.8).

Conclusion(s): Endosalpingiosis appears to affect postmenopausal women at a rate much higher than previously reported. Endosalpingiosis and endometriosis occur concurrently in 34% of endosalpingiosis cases; however, the two diseases have different clinical presentations. This demonstrates that endosalpingiosis is not a variant of endometriosis.