Dienogest treatment improves quality of life in women with endometriosis

ackground The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of dienogest treatment in improving quality of life in women with endometriosis. Methods This was a prospective observational multicenter study at the universities of Siena, Milano, Cagliari, Perugia, Busto Arstizio, Pisa, Padova, Palermo, Foggia, Roma, Pescara and Catanzaro, including 142 patients with a diagnosis of endometriosis who received dienogest 2 mg once daily, for up to 90 days. Each patient underwent an evaluation of pelvic pain measured by visual analogue scale (VAS) from 0 to 10 points, and of quality of life measured by a mental and physical index before and after treatment. Results The mean ± SD of VAS was 8.2 ± 1.6 in women with endometriosis, and this progressively and significantly decreased to 5.9 ± 2.6 at the end of the study. Mental index score values increased from 39.0 ± 9.8 to 46.0 ± 9.1 (p<0.001); likewise, the physical index increased from 39.6 ± 9.6 to 47.7 ± 8.5 (p<0.001). During the treatment period, the most frequent adverse events (AEs) were headache (30.8%), followed by bleeding (29.4%), depression (26.6%), breast tenderness (23.8%) and acne (2.0%), but these were transitory, and none led to withdrawal from the study. Conclusions The present prospective study showed that dienogest is an effective and well-tolerated treatment improving the quality of life in endometriotic women.