El tratamiento hormonal es imperativo para todas las pacientes: lo antes posible y siempre

Endometriosis is nowadays considered an inflammatory chronic benign disease that responds to hormone manipulation and affects up to 10% of women in fertile age. It seems that innate or acquired changes in the endometrium ability to implant, invade and grow in an inflammatory milieu with estrogenic dependence and progesterone resistance are the responsible for new endometriosis implants and contribute to perpetuate the illness. There is, at the moment, no optimal known treatment that achieves the four basic objectives for the treatment of endometriosis: treat the symptoms, improve fertility, eliminate endometrial implants, and avoid illness progression. As is now considered a chronic condition, the prescribed medical treatment, until the patient arrives to the physiological menopause status or gets pregnant, must be considered in the long term, and must be effective and safe. Therefore, the realistic objectives of the treatment are the reduction or abolishment of symptoms and/or improve fertility. As a consequence of the limitations and risks of endometriosis surgeries, the first-line treatment is hormonal. This must be individualized according to age, parity, pregnancy desire, associated symptoms, other illnesses and patients preferences. Globally, there are two main types of first-line hormonal treatments: estroprogestins in extended or continuous regimens and some progestins in different routes of administration (dienogest, norethisterone acetate or desogestrel orally, and levonorgestrel high-dose intrauterine device). The different hormonal treatments and their pros and cons are explained in the manuscript.