Endometriosis linked to higher type 2 diabetes risk
A Utah cohort study linked endometriosis to a 46% higher relative risk of type 2 diabetes than no endometriosis over 10.8 years on average.
Our read
Populations- Studied:
- Cohort study of 2,939,364 Utah residents assigned female at birth, mean 10.8 years
- What changed:
- Type 2 diabetes risk was 46% higher among people with endometriosis than among those without it
- The catch:
- Differences in how often diabetes was detected could affect the risk estimate
- In the record:
- The 28th paper on endometriosis with results in people; 144 on record in all.
- Why it’s aging research:
- It bears on staying healthy in midlife and later life.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In a retrospective observational cohort study, researchers followed 2,939,364 Utah residents assigned female at birth who were born in 1935 or later. They used linked health records from 1996–2021 to identify endometriosis and type 2 diabetes. During an average 10.8 years of follow-up, 99,978 women received an endometriosis diagnosis.
Endometriosis, a condition involving tissue similar to the uterine lining growing outside the uterus, was associated with a 46% higher relative diabetes risk than no endometriosis. The analysis accounted for age, body mass index—a measure of weight relative to height—and demographic factors. Links varied by subtype and were strongest for diagnoses coded at “other” specified or unspecified sites. Associations were stronger in women under 50 and those with a body mass index below 30, but also appeared in older and higher body mass index groups.
Why it matters
The findings raise questions about how an inflammatory reproductive condition relates to long-term metabolic health across menopause, a transition in reproductive aging.
Caveats
This observational study cannot establish cause and effect; unmeasured differences and differences in how often diabetes was detected could affect the results. The cohort was limited to Utah residents assigned female at birth, and diagnoses relied on health-record codes.
The paper
George Mason University
Diabetologia, Aug 6, 2026, Open access
doi.org/10.1007/s00125-026-06828-wPubMed 42560525
Corrected, Sep 8, 2026
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