Adenomyosis - Is a new treatment solution available?

Abstract

Adenomyosis - Is a new treatment solution available? Wu Shun Felix Wong1, *, Xiao-Gang Zhu2 , Min Xue2 1 School of Women’s and Children’s Health, The University of New South Wales, 2921-2999 NSW, Australia 2Department of Gynecology, the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, 410000 Changsha, P. R. China *Correspondence: fwong3@hotmail.com.hk (Wu Shun Felix Wong) DOI:10.31083/j.ceog.2021.01.2144 This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Submitted: May 14, 2020 Revised: June 21, 2020 Accepted: July 15, 2020 Published: February 15, 2021 Adenomyosis is increasingly common up to 20% to 30% of reproductive-aged women who present with menorrhagia, dysmenorrhoea, infertility, and related pregnancy complications. It is oȻten diagnosed by the clinical symptoms and ultrasound examinations. MRI, if available, will give a more detailed confirmation of adenomyosis. There are many medical treatments available for adenomyosis, e.g., oral contraceptives, LNG-IUS, GnRH-a, and progestin, while surgery is oȻten either conservative adenomyomectomy or hysterectomy. All these treatments either impact on the fertility of these patients or not readily accepted by them because of the invasiveness of the surgery and side eȞfects of medication. High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) ablation treatment discussed in the paper oȞfers an alternative non-invasive treatment for adenomyosis. The early results of HIFU ablation are satisfactory and well accepted by patients. However, long term follows up, with a combination of medical treatments aȻter HIFU ablation, may oȞfer a new treatment solution for adenomyosis. Keywords Adenomyomsis; HIFU; Medical treatment; Adenomyomectomy