Risk factors, symptoms and management of endometriosis: A systematic review

Abstract

Endometriosis is a common condition that affects women during their reproductive years. Its diagnosis, although only confirmed by surgery, may be suspected by the presence of a number of symptoms. This review includes the most recent information about symptoms and risk factors reported in the literature. Pain, infertility, angiogenesis, chronic inflammation and estrogen dependence are features associated with the disease.Although symptoms can be treated medically, this would only provide a state of temporary recovery. The management of endometriosis usually needs to be treated with a multifaceted treatment modality, particularly with surgery, an important but not only component. Thus, many new and promising forms of treatment were added to this review. Pathophysiological pathways of the disease, such as inflammatory response; angiogenesis; and cell survival, proliferation, migration, adhesion, and invasion are the main targets of novel treatment modalities. However, some of the drugs to be mentioned are still in experimental stages, and some of them are used with other indications.Additionally, this text contains information about surgical treatment modalities. Surgery offers a more definitive treatment that can achieve long-term control of painful symptoms and is proven to improve fertility. It also permits an accurate diagnosis of severe endometriosis, which helps to plan the surgery in progress.We collected our data from many publications, including information from a PubMed search, reference books and databases of our tertiary center. Additional relevant articles were identified from citations within these publications. All of the relevant articles on endometriosis were those published between June 1979 and October 2012. © 2013 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.