Endometriosis and possible cardiovascular outcomes

Although the risk of ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and hypertension is higher, the mortality rate is lower than matched control population in women with endometriosis.

Key Points

Highlights: 

• Although the risk of ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and hypertension is higher, the mortality rate is lower than matched control population in women with endometriosis.

What's done here:

• This research is a retrospective population-based cohort study using the Health Improvement Network database in the United Kingdom.
• The outcomes of cardiovascular diseases examined in > 56 000 adult women with endometriosis and compared to the data from matched 223 669 women without endometriosis. 
• The data further adjusted for additional confounding variables including migraine, PCOS, and connective tissue disorders.
• The follow-up duration was 20 years to examine the consequences of cardiovascular diseases (ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, arrhythmia, heart failure) and mortality.

Key Results:

• The annual incidence of endometriosis was almost the same during the study period.
• Endometriosis was associated with a 40% higher risk of ischemic heart disease. The risk for cerebrovascular disease, arrhythmia, hypertension was also higher.
• No association was found between endometriosis and the risk of heart failure.
• However, the rate of mortality among women with endometriosis was significantly lower compared to matched controls.

Lay Summary

A retrospective population-based cohort study from the Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, the UK, investigated the long-term cardiovascular outcomes of women with endometriosis.

The study included 279,759 women in total, 20,1% (>56.000) were patients with surgically confirmed endometriotic patients, and the remaining 79,9% was the control group, matched with the endometriosis group in terms of age, body mass index, and health situation.

Although the annual overall incidence of endometriosis remained stable throughout the 20 years of follow-up, women in the age group of [26-35] had the highest incidence of endometriosis, with a figure of around 16 per 10000 person/year. The incidence of heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, ischaemic heart disease, arrhythmia, hypertension, and mortality from the disease was compared for the women with and without endometriosis. 

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33683770/