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Dr. Magtibay, a gynecologic cancer specialist, explains a possible cause of endometriosis referred to as Sampson's theory of retrograde menstruation. Dr. Paul Magtibay is a gynecologic oncologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
Dr. Magtibay:
Well, it’s still a little bit uncertain but the most common and popular theory is Sampson’s theory of retrograde menstruation, meaning that when a woman has her period every month, some of that tissue that normally is sloughed off and goes through the vagina backs up through the fallopian tubes and then implants somewhere in the pelvis and remains viable and lives and responds to hormones.
Now that’s the most likely and plausible cause for endometriosis. The problem with that theory, though, however, is that most women will retrograde menstruate through their tubes, but why some women develop endometriosis and others don’t, we have no idea.