Low testosterone levels during pregnancy would alter the development of the reproductive system of the fetus.
- According to the researchers, this discovery could improve the diagnosis of endometriosis and allow the development of new treatments.
- The suppression of the rules, by hormonal treatment, is the first therapeutic track against endometriosis. In the most severe cases, surgery can eliminate the lesions causing the disease.
- Polycystic ovary syndrome is the most common hormonal disease in women of childbearing age.
Endometriosis is a disease that is still poorly understood. If today it affects nearly one in ten women, its causes are unclear. Research from Canada’s Simon Fraser University provides new leads. In Evolution, Medicine and Public Health, they demonstrate that a lack of testosterone could explain the onset of the disease. The analysis of data from various scientific studies led them to this conclusion.
Changes in the reproductive system during pregnancy
“Low testosterone in early development is the strongest known correlation with endometriosis, and its effects could explain most of the symptoms“, says Bernard Crespi, co-author of the study. With his colleagues, he finds that women suffering from endometriosis developed with low testosterone levels in the womb of their mother, when they were l This low amount of hormone causes changes in the development of the reproductive system which then result in the appearance of endometriosis.
A change of perspective
“It’s very common for researchers to focus only on estrogen as a female hormone, and testosterone as a male hormone, but in reality, both of these hormones are important for all humans.“, emphasizes Ben Trumble, assistant professor of human evolution and social change at the University of Arizona. In this Canadian study, the researchers decided to go beyond this binary perception and to take an interest in all hormones and their impact on female health. This new conception is important for the understanding of endometriosis, but not only, their findings shed new light on other pathologies, such as polycystic ovary syndrome.”This disorder is linked to too high, rather than too low, levels of testosterone in the prenatal period, emphasizes Bernard Crespi. We show that the causes of polycystic ovary syndrome are the opposite of those of endometriosis.“
What are the differences between these two pathologies?
Polycystic ovary syndrome is a hormonal disease: it is the leading cause of female infertility. It can cause hirsutism and metabolic disorders, such as diabetes. No specific treatment can cure it to date. Endometriosis also does not benefit from a specific treatment. This pathology can also cause infertility, but is more generally responsible for severe pelvic pain during menstruation. In the reproductive system, it is characterized by the presence of tissues, similar to those of the endometrium, outside the uterus. In France, one in ten women is affected, but the diagnosis is very long: it takes seven years on average to establish it.
.
