Progestins and medical treatment of endometriosis - physiology, history and society.

The transitory effect of hormonal treatment is the alleged main reason to criticize progestins (PGS) and combined pills (OP) in the managment of endometriosis. To the contrary their poor efficacy in the long run is often underlined. As a result, medical treatment is too seldom advised in endometriosis.

[Ovarian gonadotropic inhibition and endometriosis. About fighting false dogmas...].

Ovarian gonadotropic inhibition is today an efficacious tool in the treatment of endometriosis mainly when associated with surgery and sometimes by itself. However, to be useful, this inhibition must be stable - without any cyclical looseness - of long duration, sometimes during years and sufficiently powerful. Depending on the severity of symptoms and that of the disease, the choice will be among GnRH agonists, gestagens and combined OCs.

[Endometriosis: a mysterious and incapacitating disorder].

Endometriosis can be a highly incapacitating disorder. The only effective treatment used to be surgery (increasingly by laparoscopy), and hormone therapy was solely used as an adjuvant. Today, thanks in particular to progress in sonography and MRI, and to the growing realization of the frequent role of psychological factors, medical treatment is becoming more commonplace.