Prolonged GnRH agonist and add-back therapy for symptomatic endometriosis: long-term follow-up

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Leuprolide in the context of endometriosis, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To assess post-treatment effects in endometriosis patients of a 12-month course of GnRH agonist alone or with one of three "add-back" regimens.

Who Took Part

The study group was 201 patients.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, women only.

This is a post-treatment follow-up analysis of a randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled 52-week trial.

Of 201 patients enrolled in the initial trial, 123 completed at least 280 days of therapy and entered the follow-up period.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Leuprolide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Leuprolide.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Leuprolide group a baseline to be compared against.

Physical findings and symptoms were quantified, and lumbar spine bone mineral density was determined at intervals for up to 12 and 24 months post-therapy.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Bone Density, Endometriosis, Estrogens, Conjugated (USP), Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone, Leuprolide, Norethindrone and Norethindrone Acetate.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Leuprolide in 201 patients in people with endometriosis.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2002 (Obstetrics and gynecology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Leuprolide compound page, Endometriosis research.