Background: Endometriosis is a common nonfatal gynecological disease, and infertility is one of its main dangers. Endometriosis-related infertility causes serious damage to women's health and places a burden on women of reproductive age. The aim of this study was to describe the current burden of endometriosis-associated infertility and to analyze its spatiotemporal trends.
Methods: Age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR) data from 1990 to 2019 for Endometriosis-related primary infertility (ERPI) and secondary infertility (ERSI) were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019. These data spanning three decades cover the global, sociodemographic index (SDI) regions, GBD regions, and 204 countries and territories. Spatiotemporal trends were analyzed by calculating the estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) and using a time-period-cohort model.
Results: Globally, the ASPR of ERPI and ERSI showed a weak downward trend from 1990 to 2019, with EAPCs of -1.25 (95% CI: -1.39 to -1.11) and -0.6 (95% CI: -0.67 to -0.53), respectively. The spatiotemporal trends in ERPI and ERSI varied substantially between regions and age groups. When endometriosis-related infertility burden was linked to SDI values, a strong negative correlation was observed between the ASPR of ERSI and its EAPC and SDI values. When modeling with age-period-cohort, ERPI burden was found to be highest at ages 20-25 years, while ERSI burden was persistently higher at ages 20-45 years. Using 2000-2004 as the reference period, both ERPI and ERSI burden decreased with each year among women. Significant variability in burden between regions was found for the birth cohort factor.
Conclusions: The global burden of endometriosis-related infertility declined minimally from 1990 to 2019. However, this burden varied considerably across regions, age groups, periods, and birth cohorts. The results of this study reflect spatiotemporal trends in the burden of endometriosis-related infertility over the study period and may be used to help improve health management, develop timely and effective prevention and control strategies, and provide epidemiologic theoretical evidence for reducing the burden for endometriosis-related infertility.
Keywords: age–period–cohort model; endometriosis; global burden of disease; infertility.