REVIEWS   

Minerva Ginecologica 2003 June;55(3):241-52

Copyright © 2003 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Dysfunctional uterine bleeding: medical therapies

Morana B., Zarbo R., Puglisi F., Zarbo G.

About a third of all gynecological consultations are carried out for abnormal uterine bleeding and this ratio rises to 70% in women in peri- and postmenopause. The diagnosis of dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) which is generally due to a chronic anovulatory condition, is only arrived at after objective examination has excluded transvaginal echography, sonohysterography, hysteroscopy and if necessary biopsy to check for the presence of organic pathology. The drugs commonly used in DUB are methylergometrine, the antifibrinolytics, the FANS, estrogens, progesterone and its derivaties, the estroprogestinics, danazol and the superagonist analogues of GnRH. Following these simple guidelines, all derived from evidence-based medicine, medical treatments for DUB are certainly together with patient satisfaction but there is also a marked reduction in costs linked above all to the diminution in the number of hysterectomy operations.