{"paper_id":"bb8158ec-9c19-4b95-a1c2-798149a81eb2","body_text":"Abstract\nObjective\nTo compare the 12-month clinical outcomes of laparoscopic RFA alone with those of laparoscopic RFA combined with LNG-IUS in patients with symptomatic adenomyosis.\nMethods\nThis single-center retrospective cohort study included 70 patients with adenomyosis who had complete 12-month follow-up data. Based on the treatment documented in their medical records, patients were classified into an RFA-alone group (group A, n = 35) and an RFA-plus-LNG-IUS group (group B, n = 35). The primary outcome was the change in VAS score from baseline to 12 months. Continuous outcomes were analyzed using two-way mixed-design repeated-measures analysis of variance, with particular attention to the group-by-time interaction.\nResults\nSignificant group-by-time interactions were observed for VAS score, menstrual volume, and uterine volume at 12 months. Compared with RFA alone, RFA plus LNG-IUS was associated with greater reductions in VAS score (difference in change, − 0.60 points; 95% CI, − 1.06 to − 0.14; P = .012), menstrual volume (− 25.00 mL; 95% CI, − 35.11 to − 14.89; Holm-adjusted P < .001), and uterine volume (− 14.00 cm³; 95% CI, − 17.10 to − 10.90; Holm-adjusted P < .001). At 1 month, the combined-treatment group showed a greater increase in hemoglobin (difference in change, 14.00 g/L; 95% CI, 11.51 to 16.49; Holm-adjusted P < .001) and a greater reduction in CA125 (− 7.10 U/mL; 95% CI, − 11.09 to − 3.11; Holm-adjusted P = .003). No significant group-by-time interactions were observed for white blood cell count, red blood cell count, or platelet count.\nConclusion\nIn this retrospective cohort, adding LNG-IUS to laparoscopic RFA was associated with greater 12-month improvements in pain, menstrual volume, and uterine volume than laparoscopic RFA alone. These preliminary findings require confirmation in larger prospective studies with longer follow-up.\nSimilar content being viewed by others\nAbbreviations\n- VAS:\n-\nVisual Analog Scale\n- LNG-IUS:\n-\nLevonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system\n- RFA:\n-\nRadiofrequency ablation\nAcknowledgements\nWe thank all patients for providing signed permission to publish this article.\nFunding\nThis work was supported by the Shanxi Medical Doctor Association Project (YSXH-QL2024ZHZL014).\nAuthor information\nAuthors and Affiliations\nCorresponding authors\nEthics declarations\nEthics approval and consent to participate\nThe study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Shanxi Provincial People’s Hospital (No. 716). The requirement for informed consent was waived by the Ethics Committee because of the retrospective study design.\nConsent for publication\nNot applicable.\nCompeting interests\nThe authors declare no competing interests.\nAdditional information\nPublisher’s note\nSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.\nSupplementary Information\nRights and permissions\nOpen Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.\nAbout this article\nCite this article\nGuo, J., Gao, Y., Xu, L. et al. Effects of laparoscopic radiofrequency ablation combined with a levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system in patients with adenomyosis. BMC Women's Health (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-026-04947-5\nReceived:\nAccepted:\nPublished:\nDOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-026-04947-5","source_license":"CC0","license_restricted":false}