How old is endometriosis? Late 17th- and 18th-century European descriptions of the disease.

UNLABELLED: DESIGN OF THE PROJECT: This study is the result of a detailed examination of numerous historical documents as well as several contemporary works describing endometriosis. The historic texts are housed in the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and had not been unearthed previously. Those primary sources date from 1690 to 1797 and repeatedly describe the organic damage and constitutional symptoms currently identified with endometriosis. The biologic research for this study was done during 1997 and 1998 in the Pathology Department of the Canton-Potsdam Hospital located in Potsdam, New York. CONCLUSION(S): Endometriosis was described in European history approximately 300 years ago.