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Updated: Apr 6, 2026

Mouse Model of Surgically-induced Endometriosis by Auto-transplantation of Uterine Tissue
Published on: January 6, 2012
Heritability of endometriosis
Rama Saha1, Hans Järnbert Pettersson1, Pia Svedberg2
1Department of Clinical Science and Education, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Objective:
To estimate the relative contribution of genetic influences and prevalence on endometriosis.
Design:
Analysis of self-reported data from a nationwide population-based twin registry.
Setting:
Not applicable.
Patient(S):
A total of 28,370 women, female monozygotic (MZ) or dizygotic (DZ) twins, who participated in either of two surveys (1998-2002 or 2005-2006).
Intervention(S):
None.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Self-reported endometriosis, validated by medical records.
Result(S):
A history of endometriosis was reported by 1,228 female twins. The probandwise concordance was 0.21 for MZ and 0.10 for DZ twins. Higher within-pair (tetrachoric) correlation was observed among MZ (0.47) compared with DZ (0.20) twins. The best-fitting model revealed a contribution of 47% by additive genetic factors and the remaining 53% attributed to unique environmental effects.
Conclusion(S):
Our findings suggest both genetic and unique (nonshared) environmental influences on the complex etiology of endometriosis and support the hypothesis that genes have a strong influence on phenotypic manifestations of endometriosis.
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