Sh. Woodworth et al., A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY ON THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN RED HAIR COLOR AND ENDOMETRIOSIS IN INFERTILE PATIENTS, Fertility and sterility, 64(3), 1995, pp. 651-652
Objective: To determine if red-haired infertile women have an increase
d prevalence of endometriosis. Design: Prospective, nonblinded. Settin
g: Large, metropolitan, private hospital, associated with a university
. Subspeciality care provided by reproductive endocrinologists. Patien
ts: One hundred forty-three consecutive women undergoing laparoscopy o
r laparotomy for infertility. Interventions: Laser ablation of any end
ometriosis present. Main Outcome Measure: Presence of endometriosis. R
esults: Of 143 women entered into the study, 12 had natural red hair.
The ages of these women ranged between 23 and 41 years. Ten of 12 (83%
) of the red-haired women were found to have endometriosis compared wi
th 55 of 131 (42%) of nonredheads. By statistical analysis, the 95% co
nfidence intervals for the presence of endometriosis in redheads was 5
5% to 100% versus 34% to 51% for nonredheads. Conclusion: The results
suggest an association between the occurrence of natural red hair and
those factors that lead to the development of endometriosis.