Early life trauma and endometriosis: a case-control study on type and timing of adverse experiences, 2026, Chiu et al

forestglip

forestglip

Moderator
Staff member
Early life trauma and endometriosis: a case-control study on type and timing of adverse experiences

Chiu, Lauren; Mu, Eveline; Li, Qi; Ingleby, Lucy; Kulkarni, Jayashri

Purpose
Endometriosis is a common chronic inflammatory gynaecological condition characterised by the abnormal presence of endometrial tissue outside the uterus. Different risk factors for endometriosis have been proposed, with some research finding a significant relationship between endometriosis and early life trauma.

This study aimed to determine the prevalence, age, and type of early life trauma in a clinical sample of women with existing diagnosis of endometriosis compared with the prevalence in the general Australian female population.

Methods
Participants were recruited from the Multidisciplinary Alfred Psychiatry research centre Women’s Mental Health Clinic (WMHC). Women who self-reported a diagnosis of endometriosis were identified from the WMHC patient database, established in 2017. In patients who reported a presence of early life trauma, information regarding the type and age of the early traumatic experience(s) was recorded.

The prevalence of each type of trauma in our participants was compared to the general female population in Australia.

Results
Of 68 included participants, the mean (SD) age was 41.6 (9.7) years. 86.8% of participants (n = 59) reported experience of any early life trauma, most commonly occurring between ages 6–10 (89.8%). The most reported type of trauma was emotional abuse (76.5%).

Compared to the general female population, the prevalence of emotional abuse (76.5% vs 37.3%), neglect (35.3% vs 10.8%), and sexual abuse (39.7% vs 37.3%) were higher in our sample.

Conclusion
The findings of this study found high prevalence rates of early life trauma, in particular emotional abuse and neglect, in women with endometriosis.

Web | DOI | PDF | Research Square | Preprint
 
Participants were recruited from the Multidisciplinary Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc) Women’s Mental Health Clinic (WMHC), a public service providing specialist secondary consultation for women referred with complex psychiatric concerns. [...] women who self-reported a diagnosis of endometriosis were identified.
Click to expand...
The prevalence of early life trauma in our sample of women with endometriosis was greater compared to the general Australian female population (Mathews et al. 2023) for emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect (Fig. 3).
Click to expand...

Why are they comparing women from a psychiatry clinic to the general female population? It seems obvious that early life trauma would be higher in the former, whether or not they have endometriosis. Why are they not comparing to the non-endometriosis women from the same clinic?
 
Maybe also worth noting that while there was an increase in emotional abuse and neglect in the endometriosis/psychiatry sample compared to the general population, there was no significant increase in sexual or physical abuse (non-significant decrease in the latter):
Compared to the general population, the prevalences of emotional abuse and neglect were significantly greater in our sample by 39.2% (p < 0.001) and 24.5% (p < 0.001), respectively (Fig. 4). Sexual abuse was greater in our sample by 2.4% but not significantly different. Conversely, the prevalence of physical abuse was lower in our sample compared to the general female Australian population by 5%.
Click to expand...
Reports of emotional abuse or neglect seem like they would be susceptible to subjective interpretation of the question being asked, while the non increased events - sexual abuse and physical abuse - are more concretely defined.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom