Abstract: Adolescent endometriosis is a special type of endometriosis，which can cause dysmenorrhea，chronic pelvic pain，infertility and other symptoms. The etiology is still unknown，and the pathogenesis is complex. The current theory include retrograde menstrual blood，genetics，blood transmission and other factors. Among them，endometrial stem cells contained in retrograde menstrual blood have caused heated discussion in recent years. That is, the endometrial stem cells reversely flow into the abdominal cavity through menstrual blood，which caused ectopically planted，invaded，grew and resulted in diseases. However, the gold standard for diagnosis of adolescent endometriosis is laparoscopic surgery and pathological examination. Because of the disease start at an early-onset time, and is easy to relapse，it is still a thorny problem in gynecology. This review focus on the epidemiological data, pathogenesis, related risk factors and clinical characteristics of adolescent endometriosis. Further study of the adolescent endometriosis may enhance the prevention and encourage the early diagnosis and early treatment，which reduce the occurrence of endometriosis complications in the future days.

Key words: Puberty, Endometriosis, Epidemiologic studies, Pathogenesis, Risk factors, Clinical characteristics