Where your DNA places you among other people, and the studies behind it.
Not tailored to your result, and not medical advice
Take Disabling Period Pain Seriously: Endometriosis affects an estimated 10% of reproductive-age women, and the World Health Organization reports that the average time from first symptoms to diagnosis is between 4 and 12 years. The symptoms it lists are severe pain during menstruation, chronic pelvic pain, heavy menstrual bleeding, abdominal bloating and nausea, and infertility. Pain that regularly stops you working, studying or sleeping is not something to wait out, and describing its pattern and timing to a clinician is the useful next step. World Health Organization
Rethink Daily Red Meat: In the Nurses' Health Study II, 81,908 women followed from 1991 to 2013, those eating more than two servings of red meat a day had a 56% higher rate of laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis than those eating one serving a week or less (RR 1.56, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.99). The association was driven mainly by unprocessed red meat, while poultry, fish, shellfish and eggs showed no relationship with risk, and swapping those foods in for red meat was associated with a lower rate. The authors' proposed explanation is hormonal: red meat intake is associated with lower sex hormone binding globulin and higher estradiol, and endometriosis lesions are estrogen dependent. This is observational data, so it describes a pattern rather than proving that meat causes the disease. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (PMC)
Choose Oily Fish Over Fried Food: In the same cohort, 70,709 women followed for 12 years, those in the highest fifth of long-chain omega-3 intake were 22% less likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis than those in the lowest fifth (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.99), while those in the highest fifth of trans fat intake were 48% more likely (RR 1.48, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.88). Total fat intake showed no association; the type of fat did. The omega-3 sources the study names in that cohort were salad dressing, tuna and other dark fish, and the main trans fat sources were commercially fried foods, margarine and crackers. These are associations from repeated diet questionnaires, not a test of whether changing the fats you eat alters established disease. Human Reproduction (PMC)
Keep Moving Through Symptom Flares: A 2025 systematic review gathered six randomised trials covering 251 women with endometriosis, testing supervised exercise and resistance work, hatha yoga, telehealth and virtual reality delivered programs, and progressive muscle relaxation. Only two of those trials were similar enough to pool, and in that small pooled analysis the pain domain of endometriosis-specific quality of life improved (weighted mean difference -20.22, 95% CI -30.25 to -10.18) along with the control and powerlessness domain, with no serious adverse events reported. The trials were small and short and used mixed outcome measures, so the authors treat this as promising rather than settled. The review looked at living with the condition, not at whether exercise prevents it. PLoS One (PMC)
Be Realistic About Prevention: The honest position, and the one the World Health Organization states plainly, is that there is no known way to prevent endometriosis. In the ENDO Study, which followed 473 women having abdominal surgery and assessed their habits beforehand, alcohol, caffeine, smoking (measured by serum cotinine rather than self-report) and physical activity all showed no association with incident endometriosis, and only greater sitting time showed a modest positive association. Women found to have endometriosis actually had a lower average BMI than the other women in that surgical group (26.3 versus 29.2), and the authors note that findings across the literature are inconsistent and that more work is needed before lifestyle change can be called preventive. Diet, activity and sleep still matter for symptom burden and general health, but they are not a shield against developing the condition. Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology (PMC)
How much of this is genetic?
Genetics explains 50% of why people differ in this trait. The rest is environment, daily habits and chance.
Heritability estimate: Twin and family studies
Background and further reading
Endometriosis is a chronic, estrogen-dependent condition in which tissue resembling the lining of the uterus (endometrium) grows outside the uterus, most often on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and the tissue lining the pelvis. It affects roughly 10% of women and girls of reproductive age worldwide. Common symptoms include painful periods, chronic pelvic pain, pain during or after sex, and, in some cases, difficulty conceiving. Severity varies widely and does not always correlate with the amount of visible disease, and diagnosis is frequently delayed by several years.
Genetic Basis: Twin and family studies estimate the heritability of endometriosis at roughly 50%, and having a first-degree relative with the condition substantially raises an individual's likelihood of it. It is a polygenic trait, meaning many common variants each contribute a small amount. Large genome-wide association studies have identified loci near genes involved in sex-hormone signaling and cell growth, including WNT4, GREB1, ESR1 (estrogen receptor), CDKN2B-AS1, VEZT, and FN1. Several of these signals point to estrogen-pathway biology and shared genetic architecture with other reproductive and pain-related traits.
Contributing Factors: Endometriosis reflects an interplay of genetics, hormones, and other biological factors. A leading model involves retrograde menstruation combined with altered immune clearance and local estrogen production that allow endometrial-like tissue to implant and grow. Factors associated with higher likelihood include early age at first period, short menstrual cycles with heavy or prolonged bleeding, and never having given birth, while longer cycles and higher parity are associated with lower likelihood. These associations describe populations and do not determine any individual's outcome; a genetic score reflects predisposition, not a diagnosis.
The published research behind your score, and the variants it draws on.
1 published score from 1 study
The endometriosis score combines 1 polygenic score drawn from 1 published study.
These traits are influenced by some of the same genes and variants as this one
Content updated August 2026.
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