Do Low-Dose Oral Contraceptives have an Effect on Ovarian Endometrioma Diameter and Endometriosis Symptoms?

Simona Del Forno, Serena Solfrini, Giulia Ferrini, Letizia Zannoni, Valentina Bertoldo, Giorgia Monti, Deborah Leonardi, Antonio Maria Morselli Labate, Alexandro Paccapelo, Renato Seracchioli
In: Journal of Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Disorders · 2013 · vol. 5(4) , pp. 151–158 · doi:10.5301/je.5000167 · W1994162730
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 6 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This retrospective study found that drospirenone/ethinylestradiol 3 mg/20 μg reduced endometrioma diameter and dysmenorrhea VAS scores, with continuous use showing greater endometrioma reduction than cyclic use.

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

Abstract

Purpose To investigate the effect of a low-dose oral contraceptive containing drospirenone/ethinylestradiol 3 mg/20 μg on endometrioma mean diameter. Methods Fifty women with sonographic diagnosis of ovarian endometrioma and at least 12 months of therapy with drospirenone/ethinylestradiol 3 mg/20 μg, without previous adnexal surgery, were selected for this retrospective study. Endometrioma mean diameter measured with transvaginal ultrasonography and endometriosis-associated symptoms evaluated by a visual analogue scale (VAS) score (0-10) were reported at therapy prescription (baseline) and after 6, 12 and 18 months of treatment. Main outcome measures were endometrioma mean diameters and endometriosis-associated symptoms variations during the follow-up; differences between cyclic and continuous regimen were also considered. Results A significant reduction in endometrioma mean diameter was observed during the follow-up. The reductions of mean diameter versus baseline values were significantly higher in continuous users than in cyclic users at 6 and 18 months of follow-up. No new endometriomas occurred. The dysmenorrhea VAS score significantly decreased during the follow-up. Conclusions Drospirenone/ethinylestradiol 3 mg/20 μg seems to be effective in reducing endometrioma mean diameter. The continuous regimen seems to be associated with a greater reduction than the cyclic one.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Outcome instruments

VAS-pain

Condition tags

endometriosisendometriomadysmenorrhea

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 (28)

Cited by (6)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK