Urogenital disorders in women with adjuvant endocrine therapy after early breast cancer.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of urogenital symptoms and vaginal atrophy in postmenopausal breast cancer patients on adjuvant endocrine therapy.

Study Design: A population-based, cross-sectional study on postmenopausal breast cancer patients on adjuvant endocrine treatment and age-matched control subjects. Vaginal atrophy was assessed by gynecologic examination and atrophy-related symptoms by validated questionnaires.

Results: In all, 57.6% of aromatase inhibitor-treated and 32.4% of tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients rated at least 1 vaginal atrophy symptom as moderate/severe, which was significantly more common than in control subjects (P < .01). Aromatase inhibitor-treated patients more often had moderate or severe vaginal atrophy (P < .05), a more atrophic cytohormonal evaluation, and significantly higher vaginal pH (P < .05) than all control subjects, irrespective of hormonal use.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the frequency of vaginal atrophy symptoms, particularly in aromatase inhibitor-treated women, might have been underestimated in previous clinical trials.