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Review
. 2021 Sep 27:2:729601.
doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2021.729601. eCollection 2021.

Medical Treatment for Endometriosis: Tolerability, Quality of Life and Adherence

Giussy Barbara  1   2 , Laura Buggio  3 , Federica Facchin  4 , Paolo Vercellini  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Medical Treatment for Endometriosis: Tolerability, Quality of Life and Adherence

Giussy Barbara et al. Front Glob Womens Health. .

Abstract

Endometriosis is associated with painful symptoms, infertility, sexological difficulties, and psychological suffering. All these symptoms have a negative impact on the overall quality of life of women with the disease, with significant personal, social and economic costs. Several medical options are available to manage symptomatic endometriosis. The pharmacological treatment for endometriosis-related pain may be necessary for decades, or at least until there is a desire for pregnancy or physiologic menopause occurs. In this perspective, clinicians should consider not only the efficacy, but also side effects, tolerability, and costs, along with women's preferences toward different treatments. In this mini-review, we analyzed the pros and cons of the available drugs for the medical therapy of endometriosis, such as estrogen-progestins, progestins, GnRH agonist and GnRH antagonists.

Keywords: GnRH agonists; GnRH antagonists; endometriosis; estrogen-progestins; medical treatment; quality of life; tolerability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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