[Medical treatment of endometriosis].

PREREQUISITES: Pathogenesis and pathophysiology of endometriosis, pharmacodynamics of oral contraceptives, progestagens, antiprogestagens, danazol, GnRh agonist and non-steroidal antiinflammatory.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The aim of this paper is to systematically review the literature evidence of medical treatments for endometriosis and to summarize recently published recommendations.

METHODS

Literature and recently published recommendations review via bibliographic research using Pubmed/Medline, Google scholar and Cochrane database.

RESULTS

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent gynecological disease. Medical treatement of endometriosis induce an estrogen deprivation situation. The Oral contraceptives reduce the rate of postoperative endometrioma recurrence and should be considered an essential part of long-term therapeutic strategies.New agents promise a distinct perspective in endometriosis treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

The effectiveness of medical treatmentis well established in the management pelvic pain and infertility associated with endometriosis and constitutes an important alternative or complement to surgery.