Link between Endometriosis, Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease, and the Health of Women Midlife

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in women with endometriosis: a systematic review of risk factors and prospects for early surveillance

“…Endometriosis has been implicated in multiple immune-mediated processes related to systemic inflammation, increased oxidative stress and an atherogenic lipid profile (de Ziegler et al, 2010;Santanam et al, 2002). Most likely through a combination of factors involving dysregulated hormone receptors and activation of inflammatory genes, the levels of markers for each of these processes have been shown to be elevated in peritoneal fluid and serum of women with endometriosis compared with controls (Akoaum et al, 2008;Bedaiwy andFalcone, 2003, Bedaiwy et al, 2002). Indeed, these markers of oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species have also been implicated in the disease processes of autoimmune conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis that manifest with both rheumatological symptoms and severe systematic comorbidities (Van Langendonckt et al, 2002).…”

“…Due to a similar process, it has been suggested that endometriosis could induce, or at least be associated with, similar adverse effects on other body systems. This could lead to longterm systemic comorbidities that may negatively affect the lifelong health of women (Hughes et al, 2015;Sinaii et al, 2002;Taskin et al, 2019). Given the widely accepted association between subclinical systemic inflammation and endometriosis (Agic et al, 2006;Berkes et al, 2014;Jaeger-Lansky et al, 2018;Kobayashi et al, 2014;Yun et al, 2018), there is emerging evidence that endometriosis may predispose these patients to a spectrum of disorders later in life, including multiple cancers, inflammatory bowel disease, endocrine disorders and atherosclerosis (Hughes et al, 2015).…”

Establishing a Comprehensive Framework for Future Explorations: An Endometriosis and Cardiovascular Disease Literature Review

“…Moreover, studies have found that women with a family history of endometriosis are generally more susceptible to endometriosis [18]. This suggests that genetic factors potentially play a role in the etiology of the disorder.…”

“…Likewise, to better determine if a correlation exists, various prospective research studies have examined whether women with endometriosis have a higher chance of developing atherosclerosis compared to women without endometriosis [16,18,20]. These studies utilized various testing methods and parameters to identify different biomarkers that could link endometriosis to cardiovascular disease.…”

“…Most commonly, the data utilized to examine whether women with endometriosis have a higher chance of developing atherosclerosis is from pre-existing longitudinal studies. For instance, the pivotal 2016 paper by Mu et al utilized data from the multi-decade Nurses' Health Study II [18]. Thus, since there is no singular focus on endometriosis initially, information on certain factors that would be critical for finding a proper correlation between endometriosis and CVD is not collected.…”