John Albertson Sampson, born August 17, 1873 near Troy, New York - died December 23, 1946 in Albany, New York is a gynecologist who studied endometriosis.

Sampson graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1899, and after completing his traing in gynecology, he settled in Albany, NY. He worked at the Albany Hospital, and later became Professor of Gynecology at the Albany Medical College.

While endometriotic cysts had been described before - so by W.W.Russell in 1898 -, it was Sampson who studied the disease systematically, described the clinical manifestations, and contributed to our understanding by proposing , in 1921, that endometriosis is a process produced by the escape of endometrial tissue that escapes retrograde through the fallopian tubes into the pelvis. This then leads to secondary reactions of inflammation, repair, and scar formation. His theory of 'retrograde menstruation' competed with the alternative theory of 'coelomic metaplasia' that stated that endometriosis started in the pelvis de novo from stem cells. Even today, these and other theories coexist, as the cause of endometriosis remains a subject of debate.

Reference

Speert H. Obsterics and Gynecology in America. A History. Waverly Press, Inc. Baltimore, MD, 1980.

See also

Endometriosis