Recent Guidelines on Endometriosis and Adenomyosis

Abstract

Guidelines for clinical practice are systematically developed statements to assist care providers and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances. There have been a number of clinical guidelines developed and published in the last two decades, describing investigation of management of endometriosis. A few of these also included the subject of adenomyosis. There are significant differences between the scope and focus of these guidelines; whilst some cover all aspects of endometriosis, others solely address endometriosis-associated infertility. The majority of recommendations are in agreement with each other, although there are subtle differences between different guidelines. These guidelines make recommendations on the diagnosis of endometriosis and treatment of pain or infertility associated with endometriosis. Some of these guidelines also cover related subjects such as endometriosis and cancer, asymptomatic endometriosis, extragenital endometriosis and endometriosis in adolescents. This chapter provides a summary of the main recommendations included in these guidelines on diagnosis and management of pain and infertility.