Quality of life for women with endometriosis

Endometriosis symptoms severely affect the quality of life, causing difficulties in daily life, modifying well-being and relationships.

Key Points

Highlights:

• Perimenopausal and postmenopausal endometriosis patients should receive advice on physical fitness, psychological well-being, and social environment.
• Thoughtful evidence-based advice on treatment, relief of symptoms, and improvement in the quality of life are important.

What's done here:

• This review paper analyzes the factors affecting the quality of life in endometriosis patients and the management strategies.

Key Results:

• Endometriosis symptoms such as pelvic pain and dyspareunia have an impact on the quality of life by causing difficulties in daily activities, social life, alter general health and personal relationships.
• The stage of the disease and severity of symptoms are not correlated; the depth of endometriotic implants rather than the extent of disease are related to complex sensory and neural mechanisms.
• Quality of life in endometriosis is positively affected by age and negatively affected by the number of symptoms.
• The most effective medical treatment for endometriosis and to refine surgical techniques to improve long-term outcomes and quality of life are waiting to be discovered.
• Most of the older endometriosis patients use strategies such as physical exercise, rest, yoga, specific diets, massage, acupuncture, warm baths, or heating pads to handle their pain.
• Complete surgical excision of the endometriosis affects the long-term improvement in the quality of life.

Lay Summary

Endometriosis symptoms may cause difficulties in daily activities and social life, altering general health and personal relationships and severely decrease the quality of life. Yoldemir T. evaluates the factors affecting the quality of life in endometriosis patients and the management strategies in his recently published paper in the journal Climacteric.

Since symptoms are linked to complex sensory and neural mechanisms related to the depth of endometriotic implants rather than the extent of disease, the stage of the disease and severity of symptoms are not correlated. Pain syndromes, depression, anxiety, and chronic fatigue may be more commonly seen in endometriosis patients. Furthermore, the quality of life of younger endometriosis patients is often worse than patients over 40years of age; but advanced age is related to more depressive symptoms.

There are several medical treatment options, none being perfect. Physical exercise, rest, yoga, specific diets, massage, acupuncture, warm baths, or heating pads are strategies to cope with the pain in many older patients.

Surgical excision of endometriosis improves dyspareunia and complete removal of the lesion affects the long-term improvement in the quality of life. Surgically or medically induced menopause can trigger menopausal vasomotor symptoms, vaginal dryness, sleep and mood disturbances, and painful intercourse.

The probability that estrogen hormone therapy may reactivate the growth of endometriotic deposits and cause symptom recurrence and may promote malignant transformation are the major concerns in postmenopausal endometriosis patients. Combined hormone therapy and tissue-selective estrogen complexes might be considered instead.

Until now measuring and managing the health-related in endometriosis patients has not been very satisfactory. We still need to find the most effective medical treatment for endometriosis and to refine surgical techniques to improve long-term outcomes and quality of life. 

Research Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30269659