Medical treatment of endometriosis.

Hong-Yuan Huang, Hong‐Yuan Huang
Chang Gung medical journal · 2009 · vol. 31(5) , pp. 431–40 · PMID:19097589 · W220346933
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 18 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This paper reviews current medical treatments for endometriosis, primarily GnRH agonists and oral contraceptives, and discusses emerging therapies targeting inflammation and angiogenesis that may offer improved outcomes.

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

Abstract

Endometriosis is a common, benign and chronic gynecological disorder. It is also an estrogen-dependent disorder that can result in substantial morbidity, including pelvic pain, pro gressive dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, infertility and repeat surgeries. Endometriosis is often treated surgically upon diag nosis but with a higher rate of recurrence, suggesting that a combination of surgical and medical management might provide better outcomes. The primary goal of medical treatment for endometriosis is to halt the growth and activity of endometriosis lesions. The most widely utilized medical treat ment for endometriosis involves use of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists and oral contraceptives. Conventional agents also include androgen derivates and progestins. Due to the chronic nature of this disease, long-term or Dr. Hong-Yuan Huang repeated courses of medication may be required to control its related symptoms. Increasing knowledge about the pathogenesis of endometriosis at the cellular and molecular levels may give us the opportunity to use new, specific agents for treatment, including aromatase inhibitors, progesterone antagonists, selective progesterone receptor modulators, GnRH antagonists, intrauterine releasing systems with progestin and new pharmaceutical agents affecting inflammation, angiogenesis, and matrix metalloproteinase activity. Many of these promising new agents may prevent or inhibit the development of endometriosis. Further clinical trials may determine if these new therapies are superior to current medical treatment strategies for endometriosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisdysmenorrheadyspareuniainfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans

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 (70)

Cited by (18)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-13T06:22:48.782012+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:14:18.065553+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK