doi:10.1155/2012/869191 Review Article Endometriosis in Adolescence

Copyright © 2012 Margherita Dessole et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Endometriosis is a common cause of pelvic pain and infertility. The majority of women report symptoms since adolescence, and there are rare cases of endometriosis in premenarchal age patients. Symptoms in adolescence are similar to those in adulthood. Treatment usually consists of oral contraceptives and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. In cases where this treatment is not successful, laparoscopy and biopsy of the lesions are necessary for diagnosis. However, emerging new technologies provide new options, in particular the use of serological markers. 1.