Evaluating potential risk factors linked to endometriosis: Evidence from a Mendelian randomization study

Earlier examinations of how risk factors relate to endometriosis (EMT) have largely depended on observational designs, which arrived at conflicting conclusions. The present approach seeks to probe the causal association between 108 traits and EMT by means of Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. MR analysis was applied to explore the connections between a range of traits and the development of EMT. Most of the data used in the genome-wide association studies of these characteristics came from the UK Biobank (UKBB), whereas the genome-wide association studies for EMT drew specifically on FinnGen. Using the inverse-variance weighted approach, suggestive relationships emerged between 12 traits and EMT, including "telomere length" (odds ratio [OR] = 1.29; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.13-1.47), "triglycerides" (OR = 1.13; 95% CI: 1.05-1.21), and "high-density lipoprotein cholesterol" (OR = 0.89; 95% CI: 0.83-0.95). For most of these traits, sensitivity analyses based on the weighted median and MR-Egger methods yielded concordant results. Overall, our results point to causal associations between the 12 traits and EMT. They furnish a fresh conceptual foundation for preventing or lessening the risks associated with EMT.