The relationship between endometriosis and infertility: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Background: Endometriosis is common in women of childbearing age that has pleiotropic direct and indirect effects on reproduction. This study adopted bibliometric method to analyze the current research on endometriosis and infertility.

Method: We conducted a literature search based on the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) database. All the search results were exported and cited in plain text format for analysis. CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to analyze the source files. The analysis encompasses: annual changes in the number of publications, the distribution of the countries and institutions of the authors of the literature, the distribution of the journals from which the literature was sourced, the distribution of authors, and the use of keywords.

Results: A total of 1377 documents were retrieved. Both the number of documents and the number of citations showed an annually increasing trend. In our research,  the USA was in a leading position, with many important research institutions and researchers. Top-level journals in the field of reproduction and top-level comprehensive journals are the key areas of replication. The keywords changed over time: in recent years, popular keywords included “ovarian reserve”, “follicular fluid”, “in vitro fertilization” and “pathogenesis”.

Conclusions: There are significant regional differences in research on endometriosis and infertility. We should strengthen international cooperation, especially with developing countries.