Questioning patients about their adolescent history can identify markers associated with deep infiltrating endometriosis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the clinical history, particularly of the adolescence period, contains markers of deeply infiltrating endometriosis (DIE).
DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.
SETTING: Universitary tertiary referral center. PATIENT(S): Two hundred twenty-nine patients operated on for endometriosis. Endometriotic lesions were histologically confirmed as non-DIE (superficial peritoneal endometriosis and/or ovarian endometriomas) (n = 131) or DIE (n = 98). INTERVENTION(S): Surgical excision of endometriotic lesions with pathological analysis of each specimens. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Epidemiological data, pelvic pain scores, family history of endometriosis, absenteeism from school during menstruation, oral contraceptive (OC) pill use. RESULT(S): Patients with DIE had significantly more positive family history of endometriosis (odds ratio [OR] = 3.2; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.2-8.8) and more absenteeism from school during menstruation (OR = 1.7; 95% CI: 1-3). The OC pill use for treating severe primary dysmenorrhea was more frequent in patients with DIE (OR = 4.5; 95% CI: 1.9-10.4). Duration of OC pill use for severe primary dysmenorrhea was longer in patients with DIE (8.4 ± 4.7 years vs. 5.1 ± 3.8 years). There was a higher incidence of OC pill use for severe primary dysmenorrhea before 18 years of age in patients with DIE (OR = 4.2; 95% CI: 1.8-10.0). CONCLUSION(S): The knowledge of adolescent period history can identify markers that are associated with DIE in patients undergoing surgery for endometriosis.