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Endometriosis in menopause: a single institution experience
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 08/02/2012
Morotti M et al. – Endometriosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of postmenopausal cystic lesions of the ovary. The administration of exogenous estrogen is not a prerequisite for the presence of endometriosis in postmenopausal women, and histological signs of functionally active lesions were also observed in the absence of exogenous hormone intake.
Methods- Authors retrospectively examined the clinical records of 72 postmenopausal women with endometriosis who underwent surgery between January 1998 and December 2010.
- The median age of patients at the time of surgery was 58.5 years.
- Eleven patients (15.3 %) had previous history of endometriosis and five patients had previously undergone surgery for this reason.
- Only two patients included in the study were using hormone replacement therapy at the time of surgery.
- The most frequent location of endometriotic lesions was the ovary and among patients with endometriomas, 35 % (20/57) had different grades of metaplasia, hyperplasia, atypia and endometrioid carcinoma arising in endometriosis.
- The proportions of epithelium, stroma and hemorrhage in endometriotic lesions were higher in patients with concomitant endometrial or ovarian cancer.