Endometriosis (endometriosis) is the presence of endometrial tissue with a growth function outside the uterine cavity. The prevalence of endometriosis in women of childbearing age is about 10-15%. Symptoms of endometriosis include infertility, pelvic visceral pain, especially difficulty with intercourse (painful intercourse, abnormal vaginal pain, and painful hyperalgesia), severe dysmenorrhea, painful bowel movements, and chronic pelvic pain. Deeply infiltrating endometriosis (DEEP
deep infiltrating endometriosis,
DIE is a condition in which the endometriosis lesion penetrates the retroperitoneal space or the pelvic organ wall to a depth of 5 mm or more, and the symptoms of pain are more severe in patients with DIE. The painful symptoms of endometriosis seriously affect the quality of life of patients, causing great physical and mental pain and seriously affecting the reproductive health of women. The mechanism of endometriosis pain is still unclear. Now there are several hypotheses about endometriosis pain: First, the ectopic endometrial lesions have cyclic changes in response to hormones like the normal endometrium, and there can be tiny bleeding in the ectopic lesions during menstruation to stimulate the pelvis, which can cause pain; Second, the deep endometriotic lesions can invade the nerves and are accompanied by infiltration of mast cells thus causing pain; Third, the deep ectopic lesions can compress the nerves causing pain. However, in some patients with endometriosis, the severity of symptoms is not proportional to the size and location of the lesion. These hypotheses cannot fully elucidate the mechanisms by which pain occurs. Therefore, it is of great theoretical significance and clinical value to study the etiology of endometriosis and the mechanism of pain onset. Wang Guoyun, Department of Gynecology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University