Could endometriosis increase the severity of COVID-19 infection symptoms?

Abstract

Endometriosis is a chronic condition that affects women of reproductive age worldwide. Although the etiology is still uncertain, it has been characterized as endometrial stroma and glands outside the uterus cavity. Evidence suggests that women with this condition have implications like immunological alterations, the frequent presence of comorbidities, and chronic inflammation, which has been described to cause pain and contribute to the disease’s aggravation. Besides that, patients with endometriosis have not been considered a higher-risk group to severe cases of COVID-19. However, the real implications of the infection in patients with endometriosis are still unknown. Since hyper inflammation in endometriosis is related to severe disease cases and exacerbated inflammatory response in COVID-19 may worsen clinical symptoms. Even to patient’s death, the purpose of this review is to correlate inflammation in both conditions, drawing to a possible risk factor related to an exacerbation of inflammatory response in patients with endometriosis followed by COVID-19 infection