Coincidence of uterine malformations and endometriosis: a clinically relevant problem?

It is suspected that uterine malformations and endometriosis have a high coincidence. Furthermore, it is expected that obstructive uterine malformations are significantly higher affected than non-obstructive malformations. The correlation between endometriosis and uterine malformations may be due to increased retrograde menstruation, which would explain a higher coincidence of obstructive malformations and endometriosis [14].

This retrospective study investigates whether patients with uterine malformations have a higher prevalence of endometriosis. The study includes patients with uterine malformations who were admitted to our hospital in the period from 01.12.2014 to 30.11.2019.

279 cases were analysed. 263 (94.2%) patients had a non-obstructive uterine malformation, 12 (4.3%) patients had an obstructive uterine malformation and 4 (1.4%) patients had uterine agenesia/hypoplasia. 209 (74.9%) patients had histologically confirmed endometriosis (peritoneal, ovarian or deep infiltrating) and 70 (25.1%) had no endometriosis. In 27 cases, deep infiltrating endometriosis (ENZIAN ABC) was detected additionally to peritoneal and ovarian endometriosis.

The study shows a high prevalence of endometriosis in women with uterine malformations. For this reason, endometriosis should always be specifically sought in uterine malformations.