The evaluation of premenopausal women with anemia: what is the yield of gastrointestinal endoscopy?

Anemia is not uncommon in premenopausal women. The purpose of this study was to determine the yield of endoscopy in premenopausal women with anemia. We identified and reviewed the medical records of 168 premenopausal women who underwent upper endoscopy and/or colonoscopy for the indication of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) during the years 1996 through 2005. Of the 168 patients, 100 (59.5%) underwent upper endoscopy and 155 (92.3%) underwent colonoscopy. Eighty-seven (51.8%) patients underwent both procedures. The mean age was 43.1 +/- 5.8 years. The mean hemoglobin was 10.2 +/- 1.3 g/dl. Upper gastrointestinal (GI) lesions potentially causative for anemia were found in 7 of 100 patients who underwent upper endoscopy (7%). Significant lower GI lesions were found in 6 of 155 (3.9%) of those who had a colonoscopy. Our data suggest that both upper endoscopy and colonoscopy were useful in the detection of significant gastrointestinal lesions in premenopausal women with anemia.