Psychological variables and quality of life in women with endometriosis.

<bold>Background: </bold>Endometriosis is a common gynecological condition which has been found to have a detrimental impact upon women's quality of life (QoL). This study investigated the impact of pain self-efficacy, health locus of control (HLOC), coping style and illness uncertainty on QoL in women with endometriosis.<bold>Method: </bold>Two hundred and thirty women completed online questionnaires. Standard multiple regressions assessed the relationship between the psychological predictors and QoL.<bold>Results: </bold>The psychological variables accounted for a statistically significant proportion of the variance (p < .0005) in scores across the four QoL domains. The model accounted for 55, 26, 10 and 32% of the scores in physical, psychological, social and environmental QoL domains, respectively. Pain self-efficacy made the largest unique contribution, followed by illness uncertainty.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Women's perception of their ability to manage their pain and how uncertain they felt about their condition, were important factors in QoL, particularly in the physical domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]