title: Genetic influences on endometriosis in an Australian twin sample. sueT@qimr.edu.au.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the prevalence of and twin pair concordance for endometriosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire survey incorporating validation.
  
  
  METHODS
  An Australia-wide volunteer sample of female monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Twin Register.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twins were selected only on the basis of previous participation in twin research.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaires were sent to 3,298 individuals. Information was requested from physicians named by consenting twins.
  
  
  METHODS
  Reported endometriosis, validated where possible by pathology or surgical report.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three thousand ninety-six (94%) of the twins and 145 (82%) of the physicians responded to the survey. Two hundred fifteen twins reported endometriosis, for a prevalence rate of .07 among question respondents. Tetrachoric twin pair correlations for self-reported endometriosis (MZ: n = 854 and DZ: n = 493) were rMz = .46+/-.09 and rDz = .28 +/-.13. When available medical and pathology reports were included, they changed to rMz =.52 +/-.08 and rDZ = .19+/-.16, suggesting that 51% of the variance of the latent liability to endometriosis may be attributable to additive genetic influences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings support the hypothesis that genes influence liability to endometriosis.
authors: Cooperative Research Centre for Discovery of Genes for Common Human Diseases, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia. sueT@qimr.edu.au
authors: S A
authors: SA
authors: Treloar
authors: D T
authors: DT
authors: O'Connor
authors: V M
authors: VM
authors: O'Connor
authors: N G
authors: NG
authors: Martin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D004200:Diseases in Twins; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010641:Phenotype; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic