The clinical diagnosis of pelvic endometriosis in adolescents
We present a review of available diagnostic tools for adolescent endometriosis, a condition that may have a different pathogenesis than the adult form and therefore necessitates specific methodologies. The new theory provides that endometrial stem/progenitor cells in neonatal uterine bleeding may be causally linked to early-onset endometriosis, thereby explaining both the occurrence in pre-menarcheal girls and its severity in some adolescents. Severe disease seems characterised by the presence of ovarian endomerioma.