Medical therapies aim to improve endometriosis-related pain and to decrease the post-operative recurrence of endometriosis, but they have no role in improving surgery for endometriosis or infertility. Since medical treatments do not cause the disappearance of endometriosis, they should ideally be administered from the diagnosis up to the menopause. First-line therapies for the treatment of endometriosis are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, progestins and combined oral contraceptives. When these therapies fail to provide adequate pain relief, patients may be treated with gonadotropin- releasing hormone agonists, gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonists, danazol and aromatase inhibitors. During treatment, patients must be monitored in order to evaluate symptoms and the potential progression of endometriosis by transvaginal ultrasonography.

Keywords: endometriosis; estrogen-progestins; progestogens; GnRH analogues; GnRH antagonists; aromatase inhibitors.