Role of Aromatase Inhibitor in Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a chronic estrogen-dependent inflammatory disease which caused substantial impact on the quality of life in women of childbearing age and in some postmenopausal women. Surgical intervention is available but the high recurrence rate after surgery leads to extensive study on medical treatment in treating endometriosis. Currently there are various medical treatments available such as combined oral contraceptive agents, progestins and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists. However, these medical therapies only alleviate the symptoms of endometriosis to certain extent without curing the disease. In recent years, aromatase inhibitors emerged in clinical use due to its ability to suppress aromatase which in turn reduced the production of estrogen. Several studies have been done focusing on the efficacy of aromatase inhibitor in controlling the pain symptoms and endometriosis-associated infertility. This new group of drug has also shown efficacy in symptomatic relief in postmenopausal endometriosis. Aromatase inhibitors showed comparable efficacy with other medical therapeutic modalities with a slight edge in providing both symptomatic relief and fertility treatment in endometriosis. The adverse effects of bone density might be of concern however combination with Vitamin D and calcium supplements can make the long term therapy of this drug seem possible.