Laterality of Endometriosis

Laterality of Endometriosis
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Mark Perloe, MD: “I’m Mark Perloe, I’m here at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine with Professor Togas Tulandi who is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Milton Leong Chair in Reproductive Medicine at McGill University. Dr. Tulandi you have reported interesting data on the laterality of endometriosis. That this appears to occur more frequently on one side of the pelvis than the other. Can you comment on that?”

Togas Tulandi, MD: “Yes, the first paper was published by Dr. Vercellini from Italy. He reported at least two or three papers, and he stated that endometriosis tends to occur on the left side. We didn’t believe it, so we duplicated the study. We looked at almost 300 women and we found he is correct. More endometriosis is on the left pelvis rather than on the right side. The same is true for endometriotic cysts; we found it more on the left than on right.”

Mark Perloe, MD: “Is there any correlation between that location on the left side and bowel symptoms?”

Togas Tulandi, MD: “We didn’t look at bowel symptoms but one of the postulations is that the presence of sigmoid colon decreases the movement of the peritoneal fluid on the left hemipelvis. So the endometrial cells have more time to stay on the left side to implant. We thought that might contribute to endometriosis.”

Mark Perloe, MD: “Thank you Dr. Tulandi.”


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