Knapp, V. J. (1999). How old is endometriosis? Late 17th- and 18th-century European descriptions of the disease. Fertility and Sterility, 72(1), 10-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0015-0282(99)00196-x
Knapp VJ. How old is endometriosis? Late 17th- and 18th-century European descriptions of the disease. Fertil Steril. 1999;72(1):10-14. doi:10.1016/s0015-0282(99)00196-x
Knapp, V. J. "How old is endometriosis? Late 17th- and 18th-century European descriptions of the disease." Fertility and Sterility, vol. 72, no. 1, 1999, pp. 10-14.
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European physicians described endometriosis three centuries ago
European physicians described the symptoms and organ damage of endometriosis about 300 years ago. A historian reviewed medical texts from 1690 to 1797 and compared them with modern accounts. The texts describe intense pain, adhesions, and sores in the bladder, bowel, and vagina.
Key Findings
The texts date from 1690 to 1797 and are housed at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. The author states they had not been unearthed previously.
A German physician in 1690 described widespread peritoneal sores with a tendency to form adhesions, located in the bladder, intestines, broad ligament, and the outside of the uterus and cervix.
The 18th century added 11 other studies from four areas of Europe: Scotland, England, Holland, and Germany. None of the investigators claimed their work was original.
In the texts reviewed, physicians gave intense pain more attention than any other symptom. Some also recorded that the condition could suppress menstruation or cause profuse bleeding, and described urinary dysfunction.
The literature examined contained only one 18th-century reference to ovarian endometriotic cysts, documented in 1739.
Interpretation
This is a historical document review by one author, a historian. The author read European medical dissertations and matched their descriptions of symptoms and organ findings against modern accounts of endometriosis. Physicians of the period had no tissue samples, and the paper words several matches as probable. The historical texts were all European, and the paper reports no patient data. Pathology work in 1997 and 1998 at a New York hospital is mentioned, with no results presented.
RRM Context
Restorative reproductive medicine treats pelvic pain as a sign of an underlying condition that can be diagnosed and treated at its source. The paper shows physicians in the 1700s linking recurrent pain to damage in the pelvic organs. One Dutch physician wrote that hysteria was a major symptom of the disease. The author reports that several standard medical histories do not mention the disease.
Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.
Abstract
Design
This study is the result of a detailed examination of numerous historical documents as well as several contemporary works describing endometriosis. The historic texts are housed in the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and had not been unearthed previously. Those primary sources date from 1690 to 1797 and repeatedly describe the organic damage and constitutional symptoms currently identified with endometriosis. The biologic research for this study was done during 1997 and 1998 in the Pathology Department of the Canton-Potsdam Hospital located in Potsdam, New York.
Conclusions
Endometriosis was described in European history approximately 300 years ago.
PMID 10428141 10428141 DOI 10.1016/s0015-0282(99)00196-x 10.1016/s0015-0282(99)00196-x Knapp et al. 1999, Knapp 1999
Keywords
Endometriosis/complications/history/pathology, Europe, Female, History, 17th Century, History, 18th Century, Humans, Ovarian Cysts/complications/history/pathology, Pain/etiology
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