Prolonged cyclical and continuous regimens of dydrogesterone are effective for reducing chronic pelvic pain in women with endometriosis: results of the ORCHIDEA study

Г. Т. Сухих, Sukhikh GT, Gennady T Sukhikh, L.V. Adamyan, Leila V Adamyan, Adamyan LV, С О Дубровина, Dubrovina SO, Svetlana O Dubrovina, Igor I Baranov, И.И. Баранов, Baranov II, Bezhenar VF, Vitaly F. Bezhenar, V. F. Bezhenar, Kozachenko AV, Andrey V Kozachenko, А. В. Козаченко, Viktor E. Radzinsky, Radzinsky VE, Orazov MR, Mekan R. Orazov, Maria I. Yarmolinskaya, Jan I. Olofsson
Fertility and sterility · 2021 · vol. 116(6) , pp. 1568–1577 · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2021.07.1194 · PMID:34465452 · W3197704571
Observational OA: hybrid CC0 ⤵ 20 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Prolonged cyclical and continuous dydrogesterone regimens significantly reduced chronic pelvic pain and dysmenorrhea, with similar effectiveness and safety profiles in women with endometriosis.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of two different treatment regimens of dydrogesterone in the management of endometriosis-related chronic pelvic pain. DESIGN: Observational, prospective cohort study over six months. SETTING: Twenty gynecology clinics in the Russian Federation. PATIENT(S): Three hundred fifty women from 18 to 45 years of age with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain with or without dysmenorrhea. INTERVENTION(S): Dydrogesterone 10 mg 2 or 3 times daily, either between the 5th and 25th days of the menstrual cycle (prolonged cyclical treatment regimen) or continuously (continuous treatment regimen). For all patients, the data cutoff was at six months of treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Intensity of chronic pelvic pain on the 11-point numerical rating scale (after 6 months). RESULT(S): A marked reduction in chronic pelvic pain was observed with both the prolonged cyclical and continuous treatment regimens (mean ± standard deviation change from baseline -3.3 ± 2.2 and -3.0 ± 2.2, respectively), with no significant difference between the two groups. With both regimens, patients experienced significant improvements in the intensity of chronic pelvic pain, number of days in which analgesics were required, severity of dysmenorrhea, sexual well-being, and health-related quality-of-life parameters. A favorable safety profile of dydrogesterone was confirmed, and no serious adverse drug reactions were reported during the study. CONCLUSION(S): Prolonged cyclical and continuous treatment regimens of dydrogesterone therapy both demonstrated a pronounced and similar reduction in the severity of chronic pelvic pain and dysmenorrhea and led to marked improvements in all study parameters related to quality of life and sexual well-being. REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT03690765.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

dysmenorrheaendometriosischronic_pelvic_pain

MeSH descriptors

Chronic Pain Dydrogesterone Endometriosis Pelvic Pain Progestins Adolescent Adolescent Adult Adult Chronic Pain Chronic Pain Chronic Pain Drug Administration Schedule Drug Administration Schedule Dydrogesterone Dydrogesterone Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (60)

Cited by (24)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-16T06:09:50.462052+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:32:22.069507+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK