Letter to the Editor: Is it time to replace the term ‘endometrosis’?

This article is discussing the frequent misunderstanding of the term ‘endometrosis’, a condition affecting the equine uterus, due to its similarity to the term ‘endometriosis’. The authors propose renaming ‘endometrosis’ to ‘Fibrotic Endometrial Degeneration (FED)’ to reduce confusion.

Introduction

• The research paper is broadly about the term ‘endometrosis’, a degenerative condition of the equine uterus. The term was introduced by Dr. Robert E. Kenney in August 1992, replacing older terms like chronic degenerative endometritis, endometrial fibrosis, and chronic degenerative endometrial disease. The authors argue for a need to replace this term due to recurring confusion with the term ‘endometriosis’, a different condition, especially among non-equine clinicians and researchers.

Issues with the term ‘Endometrosis’

• There was frequent confusion in the use of ‘endometrosis’ even among researchers. The authors shared their experiences where people frequently confused ‘endometrosis’ with ‘endometriosis’, even considering it as a spelling error. This necessitated repeated explanation of the difference between the two conditions.
• This confusion doesn’t stop with the general audience but extends to the scientific community. The authors have observed that the term ‘endometrosis’ has been wrongly described as ‘endometriosis’ in several peer-reviewed equine studies.

Difference between ‘Endometriosis’ and ‘Endometrosis’

• ‘Endometriosis’ is described as the presence of endometrial glands and stroma outside the uterine cavity and musculature, a condition very far removed from ‘endometrosis’ apart from the similarity in names.
• In contrast, ‘endometrosis’ is characterised by destructive or nondestructive, active or inactive periglandular and/or stromal endometrial fibrosis including glandular alterations within fibrotic foci.

Suggested Change

• The authors suggest replacing the term ‘endometrosis’ with ‘Fibrotic Endometrial Degeneration (FED)’ to avoid confusion.
• They are aware that achieving universal acceptance for a single term describing this condition’s considerable histological variations might be challenging. However, the confusion surrounding the term ‘endometrosis’ and its potential to misplace or misrepresent research data makes the struggle worth it.