Women with endometriosis in the United States: National Survey of Family Growth, 2011–2019

Abstract

Objective: Endometriosis is a chronic often painful disease associated with infertility, which often leads to diminished quality of life. Therefore, we sought to identify the characteristics of women with endometriosis, focusing on variables that reflect quality of life, and to report the association between infertility and endometriosis Material and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. women, using data from National Survey of Family Growth, for the period 2011–2019. Results: Our analytical sample consisted of 17,619 women aged 20–44 years. Several characteristics differed between women with and without endometriosis but the association between endometriosis and some of these characteristics (age, marital status, body mass index, smoking and diabetes) were attenuated in the adjusted logistic regression analysis. There was no significant association between endometriosis and poverty, education or employment. The rate of functional impairment induced by pain associated with endometriosis was 67.50% in the weighted sample of women aged 15–49 years (2017–2019). The weighted prevalence of endometriosis was 6.40% and the weighted prevalence of infertility among women with endometriosis was 7.37%. Compared to fecund women, infertile women had 3.61 times higher odds of having endometriosis (95% CI 2.44–5.35). Conclusion: In the U.S., women with endometriosis demonstrated different characteristics and had a high rate of functional impairment. Various demographic, socioeconomic and reproductive factors were associated with endometriosis. Further longitudinal population-based studies are warranted to examine endometriosis and its association with infertility.