Medical Treatments for Endometriosis

Background: Endometriosis is a chronic disease that often need to a lifelong pharmacological treatment and surgical procedures. The pathogenesis of endometriosis is complicated and numerous mechanisms are involved it. The increasing knowledge of these mechanisms has allowed the development of new treatments. Developing ideal drugs that relieving pain, inducing regression of endometriosis lesions, and allowing conception is very important in managing the endometriosis in young women. This study was conducted to investigate the new hormonal and non-hormonal treatments to endometriosis.Methods: Electronic databases PUBMED, SCOPUS and CENTRAL were searched using the following mixture of terms: endometriosis and medical treatments .Findings: Existent studies showed the first-line drugs act by blocking ovarian function, creating a hypoestrogenic environment. The blockade of estrogen secretion and its receptor activity and the activation of progesterone receptors are the main target of new and old drugs. new hormonal treatments including GnRH antagonist, aromatase inhibitors (AIs), selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) and selective progesterone receptor modulators (SPRMs) and non hormonal treatments including new nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs], immunomodulators, antiangiogenic agents, and cannabinoids.Conclusion: Emerging new drugs is promising and their effects confirmed on animal samples and in laboratory, but further studies are necessary to support their introduction into routine clinical practice. A possible future strategy could be the use of non-hormonal drugs along with hormonal treatments to achieving maximum efficacy.

Keywords:

Endometriosis , medical treatments , aromatase inhibitors , GnRH antagonist , antiangiogenic drugs , immunomodulators , cannabinoids