Inés Morán Sánchez¹, Evdochia Adoamnei Adoamnei², María Luisa Sánchez Ferrer³, Mª TERESA PRIETO SANCHEZ³, Julian Arense Gonzalo², Virginia Casanova Mompeán⁴, Ana Carmona Barnosi⁵, Jaime Mendiola Olivares², Alberto Manuel Torres Cantero²

(1) Mental Health Centre, Cartagena (Murcia), España (Región de Murcia)
(2) METODOLOGÍA DE INVESTIGACIÓN EN CIENCIAS DE LA SALUD, IMIB, España
(3) INVESTIGACIÓN EN GINECOLOGÍA, REPRODUCCIÓN Y MEDICINA MATERNO-FETAL, IMIB, España
(4) Facultad de Medicina (UMU), España (Región de Murcia)
(5) HCUVA, España (Región de Murcia)

Endometriosis is a chronic painful condition characterized by high prognostic uncertainty, as well as the threat of infertility and emotional symptoms that may affect many aspects of woman, including psychological characteristics like dispositional optimism. Considering the impact of endometriosis on psychological health and the paucity of papers on this topic, the aim of this study is to explore optimism and associated factors in endometriosis.

A case-control study was performed on a group of 95 women with endometriosis and 156 controls. All participants completed the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), a self-administered tool for assessing dispositional optimism. Pain severity, medication, gynecological and socio-demographic information was also collected.

Low optimism was observed for women with endometriosis compared to controls even after covariate adjustment (LOT-R global scores: 14.5 vs. 15.9, p = 0.045).

To our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence that a personality dimension with many prognostic implications might be altered as a consequence of endometriosis. We propose to evaluate optimism in a simple way in the gynecology office and tailor care accordingly as a way to improve the comprehensive care of these women within a multidisciplinary team.