Systematic review of the effects of aromatase inhibitors on pain associated with endometriosis

Sanjay Patwardhan, A Nawathe, Amar C. Nawathe, S Patwardhan, Derrick Yates, D Yates, G G Harrison, G R Harrison, Khalid S. Khan, K S Khan
BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology · 2008 · vol. 115(7) , pp. 818–822 · doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.2008.01740.x · PMID:18485158 · W1993192106
review OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 96 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This systematic review found that aromatase inhibitors, when combined with other treatments, reduced pain scores and lesion size in women with endometriosis, though more evidence is needed.

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

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of aromatase inhibitors in women symptomatic of pain with endometriosis. DESIGN: A systematic review of published literature. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted a comprehensive literature search to identify all the published observational and randomised studies evaluating the efficacy of aromatase inhibitors on pain associated with endometriosis. A combination of keywords was used to identify the maximum number of relevant citations in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and the Cochrane Database. Outcome Pain relief, lesion size and quality of life. RESULTS: There were eight studies (137 women) evaluating outcomes of aromatase inhibitors. In case series/reports (seven studies, 40 women), aromatase inhibitors combined with progestogens or oral contraceptive pill or gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues reduced mean pain scores and lesion size and improved quality of life. An RCT (97 women) demonstrated that aromatase inhibitors in combination with GnRH analogues significantly improved pain (P < 0.0001) compared with GnRH analogues alone together with significant improvement in multidimensional patient scores (P < 0.0001). There was no significant reduction in spine or hip-bone densities. CONCLUSION: Aromatase inhibitors appear to have a promising effect on pain associated with endometriosis, but the strength of this inference is limited due to a dearth of the evidence available.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_pain

MeSH descriptors

Aromatase Inhibitors Endometriosis Pelvic Pain Analgesics Analgesics Angiogenesis Inhibitors Angiogenesis Inhibitors Aromatase Inhibitors Contraceptive Agents, Female Contraceptive Agents, Female Endometriosis Estrogen Antagonists Estrogen Antagonists Female Humans Immunologic Factors Immunologic Factors Levonorgestrel Levonorgestrel Pelvic Pain

Citation neighborhood

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. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (23)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-11T06:19:48.454388+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:14:36.758325+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-06-02T02:00:03.124865+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK