Endometriosis can be caused by bacteria commonly found in the gut and mouth

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Japanese researchers tested vaginal swab samples taken from 155 women, 76 healthy and 79 with endometriosis. examined. They found that 64 percent of women with endometriosis tested positive for Fusobacterium spp. In contrast, less than 10 percent of healthy women harbored bacteria in their endometrium.

After the initial discovery, researchers used mouse models to further explore the association. They found an increase in endometriotic lesions after injecting mice with Fusobacterium. Administration of antibiotics to mice significantly reduced the number and weight of lesions.

Some strains of Fusobacterium are harmless, but others can cause serious infections in humans. Although Fusobacterium has been associated with oral diseases such as periodontitis and tonsillitis, this is the first time that this bacterium has been linked to problems with the female reproductive system.

Yutaka Kondo, one of the study authors and a cancer biologist at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, said the discovery was a breakthrough in the field of women’s health care.

“Previously, no one thought that endometriosis was caused by a bacterial infection, so this is a very new idea,” says Kondo.

Endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the endometrium grows outside the uterus. This lesion can cause excruciating menstrual cramps, digestive problems, and lead to infertility. Previous studies have attributed this affliction to retrograde menstruation, a genetic predisposition, or hormones. no one knows the exact cause.

Contraception is a hormone therapy option that stops menstruation and is a treatment for endometriosis. But it only works if the person is taking the pill. The pain resumes when the drug is stopped in order to become pregnant. And with 30 to 50 percent of her endometriosis patients going through infertility, it could take months of trying to conceive in excruciating pain.

The only “cure” for endometriosis is removal of the reproductive organs.

“Medicine puts plasters on,” said Alison K. Rogers, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Illinois Fertility Center who was not involved in the study.

“I can give you pills to stop your period. You can give me birth control pills. I can give you painkillers. I can have it surgically removed,” she said. “But we don’t yet know why. Once we start to understand why, we will be able to design targeted therapeutic approaches.”

Professor Kondo emphasized that although no definitive treatment can be derived from the new research, he hopes the findings will ignite research into more potential treatments.

“If this is indeed the case for other patients, then we should investigate the microbiomes of endometriosis patients from a larger population, and find out what causes inflammation and alters tissues to behave like endometriosis.” “It might be worth assessing whether there is a mixture of infectious agents,” Raymond said. Manohar Anchan, Director of the Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Anchan, who specializes in endometriosis, said it would be “surprising” if the correlation was perfect and “further research is needed.”

Anchan and Rogers also noted the small sample size and said the study’s findings do not justify automatically prescribing antibiotics to patients to treat endometriosis. Stated.

Still Rodgers likewise called the results “exciting, albeit still in the early stages.” She and other experts believe this is the starting point for further research.

“Studies like this are interesting. Perhaps only 1 person in 1,000 makes a giant discovery,” Rogers said. “But if we can figure out why some people’s endometrial cells are abnormally sticky, we can look at therapeutic goals.”