Endometriosis is a steroid-dependent complex disease. The oestrogen receptor plays an important role by mediating oestrogen action and eutopic or ectopic endometrium development. This study investigated whether single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the genes for oestrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) and oestrogen receptor 2 (ESR2) are associated with endometriosis and endometriosis-related infertility. The participants included 157 infertile and 155 fertile endometriosis women as well as 92 women with primary infertility and 265 fertile women as controls. The iPLEX Gold system (MassARRAY system, Sequenom) was used for genotyping of ESR1 and ESR2. Statistical analysis showed that ESR1 (rs3798573 A/G) was significantly associated with endometriosis and endometriosis-related infertility (P = 0.011, P = 0.009). No association was found with ESR1 (rs1159327 A/G, rs3020348 A/C) and ESR2 (rs17179740 A/G) either for endometriosis or endometriosis-related infertility. According to the revised American Fertility Society classification, all of the detected single-nucleotide polymorphisms had no association with endometriosis in stage I-II or in stage III-IV. The results suggest that the ESR1 polymorphism rs3798573 A/G is associated with increased risk of endometriosis and endometriosis-related infertility in Han women from central China. RBMOnline (C) 2012, Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.