Amy L. Shafrir

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition that affects an estimated 1 in 10 women but is often mis- and underdiagnosed due to its non-specific symptoms and the lack of a non-invasive diagnostic test. This study aimed to identify and…

OBJECTIVE: Most endometriosis research is limited to the premenopausal period; however, case series document endometriosis among postmenopausal women. Our objective was to quantify first diagnosis of endometriosis after menopause, including…

BACKGROUND: While endometriosis is thought to be a heterogeneous disease, the pathophysiologic heterogeneity across the 3 visualized lesion macrophenotypes (ie, superficial peritoneal endometriosis lesions, endometriomas, and deep lesions) …

Ovarian cancer incidence has declined in recent decades, due in part to oral contraceptive (OC) use and tubal ligation. However, intrauterine device (IUD) use has increasingly replaced OC use. As ovarian cancer is an inflammation-related di…

Abstract Study question Is history of laparoscopically-confirmed endometriosis associated with worse cognitive function in middle-aged women? Summary answer History of laparoscopically-confirmed endometriosis is associated with lower cognit…

We evaluated inflammatory markers among 389 surgically confirmed endometriosis cases and 505 controls from the Women's Health Study: From Adolescence to Adulthood (A2A) cohort. Participants reported dysmenorrhea, acyclic pelvic pain, dyspar…

STUDY QUESTION: What are the plasma metabolomics profiles associated with endometriosis in adolescents and young adults? SUMMARY ANSWER: Our findings show dysregulation of plasma metabolomic profiles in adolescents and young adults with en…

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition characterised by pain and infertility. We conducted a prospective study to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying endometriosis development. METHODS: We examined…

INTRODUCTION: Over four million women in the US alone have been diagnosed with endometriosis. For those living with this disease, surgery and hormonal treatment reduce associated pelvic pain in some, while others continue to experience life…

Background: While the majority of reproductive-aged females will experience pelvic pain during their lives, biological mechanisms underlying pelvic pain are not well understood. We investigated associations between pelvic pain symptoms and …

INTRODUCTION: Prior studies have investigated the diagnostic potential of microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles for endometriosis. However, the vast majority of previous studies have only included adult women. Therefore, we sought to investi…

Abdominal pain is a common symptom of several debilitating conditions (eg, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and endometriosis) and affects individuals throughout their lifespan. Quantitative sensory testing (QST) refere…

Chronic pelvic pain is heterogeneous with potentially clinically informative subgroups. We aimed to identify subgroups of pelvic pain based on symptom patterns and investigate their associations with inflammatory and chronic pain-related co…

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the burden of endometriosis-associated pelvic pain (EAPP) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among women living in similar socio-economic conditions. DATA SOURCES: Searches were performed in PubMed and Embase …

Endometriosis is a common condition associated with debilitating pelvic pain and infertility. A genome-wide association study meta-analysis, including 60,674 cases and 701,926 controls of European and East Asian descent, identified 42 genom…

BACKGROUND: Peritoneal fluid is a medium for endometriosis-associated biomarker discovery from which the local peritoneal environment and pathophysiologic pathways are often inferred. Therefore, we evaluated the associations between periton…

IMPORTANCE: Early natural menopause (ENM) has been associated with reduced reproductive span, cardiovascular disease risk, and early mortality. The potential adverse implications of endometrioma surgery for ovarian reserve are known, yet th…

Endometriosis affects reproductive-aged females and varies considerably in terms of symptom presentation, morphologic features, and treatment response. Most studies investigating symptom recurrence after an endometriosis-related surgery hav…

Few studies have assessed the association between endogenous steroid hormone levels and a subsequent diagnosis of endometriosis. We prospectively evaluated premenopausal plasma sex hormone levels and the risk of laparoscopically confirmed e…

BACKGROUND: Oral contraceptive use has been associated with a higher breast cancer risk; however, evidence for the associations between different oral contraceptive formulations and breast cancer risk, especially by disease subtype, is limi…