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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1525986

This article is part of the Research Topic Lifestyle and Environmental Factors and Human Fertility View all 12 articles

Association between urinary arsenic and the prevalence of endometriosis in women in the United States

Provisionally accepted
Luyang SU Luyang SU 1Yanan Ren Yanan Ren 1Ren Xu Ren Xu 1Shixia Zhao Shixia Zhao 1Weilan Liu Weilan Liu 1Cuiqiao Meng Cuiqiao Meng 1Xuan Zhou Xuan Zhou 2Zeqing Du Zeqing Du 3*
  • 1 Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang, China
  • 2 Affiliated Hospital of Chengde Medical University, Chengde, Hebei, China
  • 3 Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Endometriosis affects up to 15% of women of reproductive age and can lead to various symptoms. More than 200 million people worldwide are at risk of higher than safe levels of arsenic exposure through drinking water. Studies investigating the relationship between arsenic and endometriosis are very limited and have yielded inconsistent results. This study aimed to explore the relationship between total urinary arsenic, arsenic species (Urinary arsenous acid, Urinary Arsenic acid, Urinary Arsenobetaine, Urinary Arsenocholine, Urinary Dimethylarsinic acid, Urinary Monomethylarsonic acid) and endometriosis.We utilized a nationally representative dataset from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2003 to 2006. A total of 650 participants were included. We examined the association between total urinary arsenic and different arsenic species with endometriosis using weighted multivariate logistic regression models.Urinary arsenous acid and urinary monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) were positively correlated with endometriosis (P<0.05). After adjusting for potential confounding factors, the positive correlation of urinary MMA remained significant (OR: 1.317, 95%CI: 1.074-1.615). Subgroup analyses and interaction tests indicated that this association was not dependent.Our research underscores a significant positive association observed between factors urinary MMA and endometriosis. Future research is needed to elucidate the specific mechanisms behind this association.

    Keywords: Endometriosis, Arsenic, NHANES, Gynecology, Chronic inflammatory disease

    Received: 11 Nov 2024; Accepted: 27 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 SU, Ren, Xu, Zhao, Liu, Meng, Zhou and Du. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zeqing Du, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050000, Hebei Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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