Increased levels of polychlorobiphenyls in Italian women with endometriosis.

Endometriosis has been hypothesised to be linked to persistent and toxic organochlorinated chemicals. Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds have in particular been associated with the disease, mainly on the basis of experimental studies. Data in women are conflicting. A case-control study on 80 Italian nulliparous women of reproductive age was carried out to assess whether there is a correlation between the presence of endometriosis and blood levels of polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), a family of ubiquitary environmental pollutants which comprises congeners with dioxin-like activity. Higher levels of PCBs were found in women with endometriosis. A mean cumulative value of 410 ng g(-1), lipid base, was found in cases versus the value of 250 ng g(-1) observed in the control group (odds ratio for upper tertile 4.0, CI 95% 1.3-13; p = 0.0003). PCB increase involved both dioxin-like (PCBs 105, 118, 156, and 167) and non-dioxin-like congeners (PCBs 101, 138, 153, 170, 180).

Dioxin-like compounds and endometriosis: a study on Italian and Belgian women of reproductive age.

Compounds with dioxin-like toxicity are suspected to adversely affect human reproduction even at current background exposures. Endometriosis, a gynecological disorder often associated with infertility, has been hypothesized to be linked to dioxins and similar chemicals, a hypothesis supported by the outcome of experimental studies on animal models. Endometriosis severity and incidence in Belgium is one of the highest of the world: in this country, the general population exposure to dioxin-like compounds has been, on average, higher than in most industrialized countries. Here we show the results of a pilot case-control study carried out on 22 Italian and 18 Belgian women of reproductive age, with and without endometriosis. No significant differences were found in dioxin-like compound body burdens between cases and controls on a country basis, whereas the body burdens of the Italian women resulted to be significantly lower than that of the Belgian. In particular, total TEQs in Italian and Belgian women without endometriosis were respectively 18 and 45 pg WHO-TE/g lb.