Towards a new chemotherapy for endometriosis: an experimentalist's perspective.

The basic assertions which have been made about endometriosis are critically reexamined and 2 new chemotherapeutic protocols are presented. It appears that about the only thing that can be said safely about progestin therapy is that as a preoperative adjunct it serves to facilitate surgery defining cleavage planes and softening adhesions. The possibility that progestins do not act directly on ectopic endometrium needs to be examined. 1 of the new chemotherapeutic protocols being studied involves the use of progestins which do not have much estrogenic activity without the simultaneous use of estrogen. The other involves the use of a new nonvirilizing testosterone derivative called delta-1-testololactone.