Continuous use of the pill curbs pelvic pain

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 13 Sep 2003 - 0:00 PDT

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NEW YORK - The menstrual pain caused by endometriosis can be relieved by taking oral contraceptive pills without the usual monthly interruption, Italian physicians report.

In fact, they say, this approach has a lot of benefits for women who have endometriosis, a condition in which the tissue that normally lines the womb and is shed with menstruation, grows beyond the womb and sometimes causes cysts.

Continuous oral conceptive use (OC), Dr. Paolo Vercellini and associates at the University of Milano write in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility, 'combines relief of pain, prevention of estrogen-deprivation effects, good tolerability, possibility of immediate suspension, contraception, low costs, and, most important, possibility of prolonging therapy indefinitely.'

Vercellini's group studied 50 women with painful periods that recurred after they had undergone surgery for endometriosis. The women's condition had not responded after more than 6 months of taking the pill on an interrupted monthly cycle. Their treatment was then changed to continuous OC use.

Average menstrual pain, measured on a scale of 0 to 100, declined from 75 at the beginning of the study to 31 after 2 years of treatment. By the end of the trial, only two patients reported moderate symptoms and none reported severe symptoms.

Eighty percent of the women said they were very satisfied or satisfied with this treatment strategy.

The Italian team also notes that endometriosis neither grew nor developed anew during the treatment period.

SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility, September 2003.

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