Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Endometriosis, and Venous Thromboembolism: A Population-Based Study

There is a paucity of studies on the association between polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis and the occurrence of venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Our study aimed to evaluate the association between PCOS, endometriosis, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and pulmonary embolism (PE).

This was a retrospective study of prospectively collected data using the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project databases. We examined the association between PCOS and endometriosis with DVT and PE from a cohort of 12,814,970 female patients, aged 18-49 years, who were hospitalized between 2007 and 2014.

We observed increasing trends, with a relative increase of 140% (from 0.27% to 0.65%) for PCOS, 16% (from 0.43% to 0.50%) for DVT, and 39% (from 0.23% to 0.32%) for PE, whereas we observed a decline by 34% for endometriosis (from 0.85% to 0.56%). The unadjusted analysis showed an association between PCOS and VTE, which remained significant after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics and comorbidities (OR = 2.16; 95% CI: 2.00-2.33 and OR = 2.44; 95% CI: 2.23-2.67 for DVT and PE, respectively). The association between endometriosis and VTE was age-dependent, with an increased risk of VTE among women 18-24 years whereas this risk was decreased among those 35 years and older.

Our study indicates an association between PCOS and VTE and an age-dependent association between endometriosis and VTE.