Endometriosis historical perspective

Endometriosis was described in the early 19th century as adenomyoma. In the late 19th century, Sampson proposed the theory of retrograde menstruation as the pathogenesis of the endometriosis. In the 1920s, endometriosis was differentiated from adenomyosis and a detailed description of the disease was given by Cullen and Sampson.

• In the early 19th century, Rokitansky described the presence of functional endometrial tissue outside of the uterine cavity in patients with ovarian and endometrial cancers.^[1]
• In the late 19th century, Sampson was the first to describe the response of the endometrium to hormonal changes and proposed the theory of retrograde menstruation as a cause of endometriosis.^[1]
• In the 1920’s, Cullen was the first to describe the histological features of the endometrium in a patient with abdominal endometriosis and named the disease as adenomyoma.^[1]
• In the 1920’s, endometriosis was differentiated from adenomyosis and Rokitansky described a case series of 23 cases with the chocolate cyst of the ovary.^[1]
• In 1973, Acosta described the rate of surgical success based on the site and severity of endometriosis.^[2]