Successful treatment of asymptomatic endometriosis: does it benefit infertile women?

E J Thomas, Eric J. Thomas, I D Cooke
British medical journal (Clinical research ed.) · 1987 · vol. 294(6580) , pp. 1117–1119 · doi:10.1136/bmj.294.6580.1117 · PMID:3107721 · W2166681945
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This randomized trial found that treating asymptomatic endometriosis with gestrinone did not significantly improve conception rates in infertile women compared to placebo or unexplained infertility controls.

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Abstract

The relation between asymptomatic endometriosis and infertility was investigated in a randomised double blind placebo controlled trial of the impact of treating the endometriosis with gestrinone. The 12 month cumulative conception rate in those patients treated with gestrinone was 25% (5/20) and in those given placebo 24% (4/17). These same patients were divided into those in whom no visible endometriosis was present at the second laparoscopy and those in whom residual disease was present and the 12 month cumulative conception rates were 25% (4/16) and 30% (6/20) respectively. None of these rates differed significantly, and they compared with a rate of 23% (6/26) in a control group of patients with unexplained infertility. Those patients in whom the disease was eliminated did not return to normal fertility, though all other causes of infertility were excluded. This study failed to show any impact of treatment or the absence or presence of asymptomatic endometriosis on future fertility compared with patients with unexplained infertility. The findings therefore question any causal role of the disease in infertility.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Gestrinone Norpregnatrienes Ovarian Neoplasms Clinical Trials as Topic Double-Blind Method Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Gestrinone Humans Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Norpregnatrienes Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Random Allocation

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.

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Cited by (50)

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