Clinical Characteristics of Adolescent Endometrioma

Study Objective: To evaluate the clinical characteristics of endometrioma in adolescent women compared to women of other age groups. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: A university hospital. Participants: Three-hundred seventy-six women. Intervention: Women of reproductive age who underwent surgery for the treatment of endometrioma were classified into 4 groups according to age (group 1, <= 20 years; group 2, 21-30 years; group 3, 31-40 years; group 4, 41-45 years), and compared. Main Outcome Measure: Clinical characteristics including demographic factors, menstrual patterns, and characteristics of endometriosis. Results: Group 1 (adolescent females) experienced menarche at earlier age compared to other groups (P < .005 for all comparisons). In group 1, main symptom was pain (77%) and the proportion of incidental detection (23%) was low, similar to findings for group 2. However, the proportions of incidental detection (45%) and infertility (10%) were increased in group 3, and the proportion of incidental detection (60%) was even higher than that of pain (40%) in group 4 showing that the distributions of presenting symptoms differed from those of group 1. There were no differences in menstrual pattern among groups. In addition, except for the absence of coexisting gynecologic problems such as myoma or adenomyosis in group 1, other characteristics of endometrioma did not differ among groups. Conclusion: Adolescents with endometrioma experience more frequent pain, but other clinical characteristics are similar to adults.