History of Endometriosis : A 20 th - Century Disease

A reconstruction of the history of progress made in identifying, describing, and treating the condition we call endometriosis is neither simple nor easy because for almost 90 years endometriosis and adenomyosis, with the possible exception of ovarian endometrioma, were considered as one disease called “adenomyoma.” As such, historians must deal first of all with a controversy over who was the first to identify the benign, non-neoplastic presence of ectopic endometrium within the uterine wall or in the peritoneal cavity and structures. In addition, they must be aware that the early history of endometriosis is interwoven with the early history of adenomyosis, since it was not until the mid 1920s that the two conditions were finally separated.