Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist plus “add-back” hormone replacement therapy for treatment of endometriosis: a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial

Franke HR, H. Franke, H R Franke, P H van de Weijer, P. H. M. van de Weijer, Pennings TM, T M Pennings, Ton M.M Pennings, van der Mooren MJ, M J van der Mooren, Marius J. van der Mooren
Fertility and Sterility · 2000 · vol. 74(3) , pp. 534–539 · doi:10.1016/s0015-0282(00)00690-7 · PMID:10973651 · W2155193637
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 47 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial investigated the efficacy of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist combined with hormone replacement therapy compared to placebo for endometriosis treatment.

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

Abstract

ObjectiveTo assess the effect of add-back therapy with continuous combined estrogen-progestin on the GnRH agonist-induced hypoestrogenic state and its effectiveness in healing of endometriotic lesions.DesignA prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial.SettingMultiple centers in The Netherlands.Patient(s)41 premenopausal women with laparoscopically diagnosed endometriosis (revised American Fertility Society scores >/=2).Intervention(s)Patients were randomly assigned to receive a subcutaneous depot formulation of goserelin, 3. 6 mg, every 4 weeks, plus oral placebo or oral continuous combined estradiol-norethisterone acetate add-back therapy daily for 24 weeks.Main outcome measure(s)Endometriosis response, bone mineral density, transvaginal ultrasonographic changes, endocrinologic effects, and subjective side effects.Result(s)The number of endometriotic implants was significantly reduced in both groups. In the group that received GnRH agonist plus placebo, bone mineral density of the lumbar spine decreased by 5.02%.Conclusion(s)The effectiveness of GnRH agonist treatment for endometriosis was not decreased by the addition of add-back continuous combined hormone replacement therapy. Bone mineral density of the lumbar spine was maintained and subjective side effects were diminished.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Goserelin Hormone Replacement Therapy Adult Bone Density Double-Blind Method Endometriosis Estradiol Estradiol Estrogens Estrogens Estrogens Female Follicle Stimulating Hormone Follicle Stimulating Hormone Goserelin Goserelin Humans Netherlands Progestins

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 (17)

Cited by (49)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-07-26T06:08:39.051465+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:13:36.046895+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK