Could Endometriosis be an Autoimmune Disease?

Hi, I'm a student nurse and am studying possible causes of endometrosis. It's a debilitating, extremely painful disease that many women and trans people, and nonbinary people have to go through. We don't really know the cause, and it's been very under researched and misdiagnosed. I've been brainstorming and explored some theories for endometriosis. Specifically, I'm focusing on endometriosis as possibly being similar to an autoimmune disease. While endometriosis is certaintly multifactoral, I think a dysregulation and overaction of the immune system could be one of the causes. I think that chronic inflammation could possilby even cause ceolomic metaplasia. Could chronic inflammation cause cells in the peritoneal cavity to change- transforming into endometrial cells? Then, we have tissue similar to the uterus lining growing on organs/fallopian tubes.

I read an article that says that chronic inflammation could lead to vascular and lympatic leaks, which would spread endometrial cells. Endometrial cells could also be spread by the lympathic system. I wonder if this could connect with retrograde menutration as well. It is important to note that while 90% of people have this, only 10% have endometriosis. Could inflammmation cause strucutral damage, thus leading to the regurgitation and implantation of endometrial cells in abnormal places?

I've heard that many patients have random food allergies, and sometimes these get worse during your period. Anybody experience this?

Anyone have any input, thoughts, or corrections?

Updates: here's some research to look at!

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-97236-3_3?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Here's info about immune cells, like macrophages and T cells, that excarerbate endo and create a positive feedback loop. So inflammation = more inflammation, body is not clearing out these abnormally placed cells.

https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/164/6/bqad057/7175459?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02018-z.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Update 2: I want to clarify that endo is not entirely an autoimmune disorder, but there’s many similarities and we definitely should look into immune-mediated pathways for endometriosis. Maybe that can allow us to specialize care. Sometimes it’s genetic, and the cells are already there!

Thank you guys!! I will be speaking to the university on Monday to see if anyone's researching this.There's also organizations out there so if anyone wants to include their input in the research I want to present, let me know!