The study found two common gynecological diseases linked to an increased risk of premature death

Recent studies have shown that the presence of two common gynecological diseases, endometriosis and uterine fibroids, are associated with an increased risk of premature death.

Endometriosis is a chronic reproductive disease that affects approximately 10% of women of reproductive age. It occurs when tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus, causing symptoms such as severe period pain, chronic pelvic pain, bloating, nausea, fatigue, and infertility. There is no permanent cure for this disease, so treatment involves managing the symptoms.

Fibroids are non-cancerous growths on the walls of the uterus that can cause symptoms such as heavy menstrual bleeding, back pain and frequent urination. About 40% to 80% of women have a uterus fibroids.

On a large scale testresearchers analyzed 110,091 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II, aged 25–42 in 1989. Participants had no history of hysterectomy, cardiovascular disease, or cancer. Diagnoses of endometriosis (by laparoscopy) and fibroids (by ultrasound or hysterectomy) have been reported every two years since 1993.

Over 30 years, 4,356 premature deaths were recorded, including 1,459 due to cancer and 304 due to cardiovascular diseases.

The rate of premature death from all causes in women with confirmed endometriosis was 2 per 1,000 person-years compared with 1.4 per 1,000 for women without endometriosis. After taking into account factors such as age, body weight, diet quality, physical activity and smoking, the risk of premature death in people with endometriosis (before the age of 70) was 31% higher compared to people without these diseases. Most of these deaths were attributed to gynecological cancers.

Although uterine fibroids have not been linked to premature death from all causes, the condition increased the risk of death from gynecological cancers.

“Women with a history of endometriosis and uterine fibroids may be at increased long-term risk of premature mortality beyond the reproductive years,” researchers say. he stated.

“These conditions were also associated with an increased risk of death from gynecological cancers. Endometriosis was associated with a higher risk of mortality from diseases other than cancer. “These findings underscore the importance for primary care providers to include these gynecological disorders in assessing women’s health,” they wrote in a study published in the journal BMJ.

The researchers caution that because this is an observational study relying on self-reported data, it may be prone to error. Additionally, because participants were primarily white health care workers, the results may not be generalizable to other populations.