A recent study indicates that women with endometriosis face a 46 percent greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes than those without the disorder, where tissue resembling the uterine lining grows outside the uterus. The condition leads to intense pelvic pain, difficult menstruation and fertility issues. Scientists from George Mason University tracked nearly three million women in the Utah Population Database from 1996 to 2021, including about 100,000 with endometriosis. The analysis showed endometriosis linked to a 46 percent elevated risk of type 2 diabetes. Risk levels differed by endometriosis type, pointing to wider long-term health effects. Ongoing inflammation from the condition may promote insulin resistance, though more research is needed to confirm pathways, as detailed in Diabetologia. Earlier work often treated endometriosis as one entity and found minimal or no connection to diabetes. These results expand awareness that the disorder can influence health beyond reproduction. The tie to higher diabetes risk appeared strongest in premenopausal women and those without obesity, groups not usually viewed as high risk. Extra-pelvic endometriosis showed the strongest link. If verified, the findings may help doctors spot women who could gain from earlier diabetes screening or prevention.
