Women suffering from endometriosis are at a greater risk of delivering babies with birth defects, new research suggests.
The study, released this week by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), examined data from more than 1.4 million births in Ontario over a span of about 15 years, from April 7, 2006, to March 31, 2021.
The research found that 6.3 percent of babies born to mothers with endometriosis had a birth defect, compared to 5.4 percent of those born to women without the chronic gynecological disorder. Over the study period, researchers examined 33,619 births to women with endometriosis and 1,426,835 births to women without the condition.
The researchers concluded that endometriosis was associated “with a higher risk of any congenital anomaly.” A congenital anomaly is a structural or functional abnormality that develops before birth….