An update on the pharmacological management of endometriosis

Isabelle Streuli, Dominique de Ziegler, Piétro Santulli, Pietro Santulli, Louis Marcellin, Bruno Borghese, Frédéric Batteux, Charles Chapron
Expert opinion on pharmacotherapy · 2013 · vol. 14(3) , pp. 291–305 · doi:10.1517/14656566.2013.767334 · PMID:23356536 · W2109409212
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This review updates current medical treatments for symptomatic endometriosis and discusses novel approaches, finding oral contraceptives as effective as GnRH agonists with fewer side effects, and highlighting the need for ovulation-preserving therapies.

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Endometriosis is a common disease that causes pain symptoms and/or infertility in women in their reproductive years. The disease is characterised by the presence of endometrium-like tissue - glands and stroma - outside the uterine cavity. Different treatment options exist for endometriosis including medical and surgical treatments or a combination of the two approaches. The most commonly used medications are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, GnRH agonists, androgen derivatives such as danazol, combined oral contraceptive pills, progestogens and more recently the levonorgestrel intrauterine system. AREAS COVERED: The authors review current medical treatments used for symptomatic endometriosis and also discuss new treatment approaches. The authors conducted a literature search for randomised controlled trials related to medical treatments of endometriosis in humans, searched the Cochrane library for reviews and also searched for registered trials that have not yet been published on ClinicalTrials.gov. EXPERT OPINION: The medical treatment of endometriosis is effective at treating pain and preventing recurrence of disease after surgery. Remarkably, the oral contraceptive pill taken continuously is as effective as GnRH-a, while causing far less side-effects. Conversely, no treatment currently exists for enhancing fecundity in women whose infertility is associated with endometriosis. As all existing therapies of endometriosis are contraceptive, great efforts should be targeted at researching novel products that reduce the disease expression without shuttering ovulation.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Infertility, Female Pain Animals Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal Contraceptives, Oral, Combined Contraceptives, Oral, Combined Contraceptives, Oral, Combined Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Humans Infertility, Female Pain Pain Secondary Prevention

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 (100)

Cited by (50)

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