BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Reprod. Health
Sec. Gynecology
Adenomyosis in Rheumatic Disease Patients: A Cross-Disciplinary Clinical Observation
Provisionally accepted
Silvia Vannuccini*
Martina Orlandi
Francesco La Torre
Ernesto Gallucci
Massimiliano Fambrini
Marco Matucci Cerinic
Felice Petraglia- University of Florence, Florence, Italy
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Autoimmune and inflammatory rheumatic diseases (RDs) are more prevalent in women and often affect gynecological health. Particularly, heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) and dysmenorrhea are more common in patients with RD. A link between RDs and endometriosis has been shown, whereas the association with adenomyosis remains unexplored. The present study evaluates the prevalence of adenomyosis in women with RD (n=76) of reproductive age referred to the Gynecology Unit compared with an age-matched control population (n=305). A detailed clinical history and pelvic imaging findings obtained via transvaginal ultrasound were collected, excluding menopausal women and those with endometriosis or gynecological malignancies. Adenomyosis was significantly more prevalent in RD patients than in controls (40.8% vs 19.7%, OR 2.81, 95% CI 1.64–4.82; p<0.001), whereas the prevalence of uterine fibroids did not differ significantly between groups. These findings highlight the need for greater awareness of adenomyosis among both rheumatologists and gynecologists, as timely and adequate recognition is crucial to improving quality of life and reproductive health.
Keywords: Adenomyosis, Dysmenorrhea, Heavy menstrual bleeding, Pelvic Pain, Rheumatic Diseases, Uterine fibroids
Received: 02 Sep 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Vannuccini, Orlandi, La Torre, Gallucci, Fambrini, Matucci Cerinic and Petraglia. 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: Silvia Vannuccini, silvia.vannuccini@unifi.it
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