Endometriosis elicits a chronic inflammatory reaction and occurs in about 7% of women. Diagnosis relies on medical history, physical signs, and imaging and is typically by an invasive operation. Women with endometriosis often have pelvic pain and distress that interferes with work, leisure activities, social functioning, emotional well-being, vitality, and employment. Given the notion that chronic inflammation plays a causative or exacerbating role in several major chronic diseases (cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes mellitus, dementia, and cancers), the potential long-term health consequences for women with endometriosis need to be addressed. New assessments of genetic, epigenetic, and circulating markers in women with endometriosis should enable insights that may either reassure or implicate endometriosis as a risk factor for other life-threatening chronic diseases.

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles to stimulate efforts to understand the molecular pathology of endometriosis, its potential impact on the risk of other chronic diseases across the lifespan, and the development of improved treatments of endometriosis and its attendant health outcomes.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Risk factors that may act via genetic, environmental, epigenetic, and immune-inflammatory pathways
• Application of “-Omics” to assess pathogenesis and biomarkers
• Disease presentation, impact, and care from puberty to menopause
• Clinical markers, realistic objective or time for a paradigm shift?
• Endometriosis in a chronic versus acute care model, pain, and pain management
• Cardiovascular or other disease associations, correlation or causation?
• Impact of endometriosis surgery on reproductive performance, including ovarian reserve and outcomes of assisted conception treatments
• Comparative epidemiology of endometriosis in low, middle, and high income countries
• Long term consequences for the quality of life (QoL) for women, including work, productivity, functionality, and psychological well-being
• Potential future therapeutics and novel management strategies and centers of excellence versus single provider care models