New hope for endometriosis sufferers

A treatment that eases iron build-up could provide help for women suffering from endometriosis, according to new research.

The condition, in which endometrial tissue develops outside the uterus and attaches to ligaments and organs in the abdomen, is extremely painful as each month it breaks down and has no way of leaving the body, leading to inflammation and scar tissue.

Roughly ten per cent of women are thought to be affected.

A study involving mice with the condition at the Catholic University of Louvian, Belgium, has led scientists to claim that an excess of iron could be the cause of the condition and that drugs which neutralise its effects could ease endometriosis.

The researchers believe that their findings, which are published in the journal Human Reproduction, are a “crucial step” in targeting the condition as their research focused “more on the origins and causes of the disease in the context of prevention, than on surgical treatment when the disease is already present”.

Lead researcher Jacques Donnez said: “We really hope that, in the future, genetics will help us to determine the population of young women at high risk of endometriosis, and that treatment, resulting from our findings, may then prevent the development or evolution of the disease.”

Further studies will now be carried out to determine the clinical benefit in women.

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