ReviewBiomolecules2023
From Retrograde Menstruation to Endometrial Determinism and a Brave New World of "Root Treatment" of Endometriosis: Destiny or a Fanciful Utopia?
Review in Biomolecules, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Live Birth After Oocyte Donation In Vitro Fertilization Cycles in Women With Endometriosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2024Pooled it
- How transcription factors regulate apoptosis in endometriosis (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2025Review
- Ferroptosis: a novel pathway in the pathogenesis and treatment of endometriosis.Journal of molecular histology · 2025Review
- Dyspareunia and Biomarkers: A Case Study of Sexual Dysfunction in Moderate Endometriosis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Gut Microbiota, Circulating Metabolites and Risk of Endometriosis: A Two-Step Mendelian Randomization Study.Polish journal of microbiology · 2024Article
- Exploring the Influence of IL-8, IL-10, Patient-Reported Pain, and Physical Activity on Endometriosis Severity.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Different Gene Expression Profile in the Eutopic and Ectopic Endometrium Sheds New Light on the Endometrial Seed in Endometriosis.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Is Neonatal Uterine Bleeding Involved in Early-Onset Endometriosis?Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Proposal for targeted, neo-evolutionary-oriented secondary prevention of early-onset endometriosis and adenomyosis. Part II: medical interventions.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Is retrograde menstruation a universal, recurrent, physiological phenomenon? A systematic review of the evidence in humans and non-human primates.Human reproduction open · 2024Review
- The causality between gut microbiota and endometriosis: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Are Adenomyosis and Endometriosis Phenotypes of the Same Disease Process?Biomolecules · 2023Review
- Endometriosis and IVF treatment outcomes: unpacking the process.Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E · 2023Review
- An Appraisal of the Tissue Injury and Repair (TIAR) Theory on the Pathogenesis of Endometriosis and Adenomyosis.Biomolecules · 2023Review
- Article
- Mechanisms of Decidual Dysfunction and Infertility in Endometriosis: Roles of Prostaglandins and SASP.Reproductive medicine and biologyReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Practically unknown outside of China, the "endometrial determinism" theory was proposed to account for the apparent gap between the relatively low prevalence of endometriosis and nearly universal retrograde menstruation. Attracting uncritical advocacy, the theory culminates in a recent consensus by elite Chinese gynecologists in favor of "root treatment", intended to nip endometriosis in the bud. Correcting endometrial "defects" can gain further momentum by the presence of cancer-driver mutations such as KRAS mutations in the endometrium of women with endometriosis and the recent introduction of therapeutics aiming to rectify the effect of these mutations for cancer treatment. We provide a critical appraisal of evidence for endometrial aberrations in endometriosis and relevant experimental evidence. All available evidence of endometrial "defect" is invariably post hoc and may well be secondary to induced endometriosis. We propose that the theory of "endometrial determinism" needs to demonstrate a clear causal and a phylogenetic relationship between endometrial aberrations and endometriosis. We argue that while it is highly likely that endometriosis is a consequence of retrograde menstruation, the case that molecular aberrations as a sole or a necessary determinant remains to be proven. "Root treatment" is a worthy ambition but as of now it is close to a fanciful Utopia.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.