Impact of nafarelin and leuprolide for endometriosis on quality of life and subjective clinical measures

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of treating endometriosis with nafarelin o r leuprolide acetate depot on patient quality of life (QOL) and subjective clinical measures. STUDY DESIGN: A randomized multicenter study was conducted on 192 women wit h endometriosis. Patients received nafarelin or leuprolide for six months a nd were followed for up to six months after treatment. QOL sons defined by seven items, including symptom severity, daily activities, pain medication use and need for bed rest. RESULTS: No significant differences were found at baseline between treatmen ts for patients with mild, moderate or no endometriosis symptoms. Those wit h severe symptoms of endometriosis at baseline and taking nafarelin had a s ignificantly greater improvement in QOL at the last posttreatment visit tha n those receiving leuprolide (P < .01). Nafarelin was associated with signi ficantly fewer days with moderate or severe hot flashes than leuprolide dur ing treatment (P < .05) and with significantly fewer moderate or severe hyp oestrogenic symptoms overall at three months of treatment (P < .05). Additi onally, poorer QOL was significantly associated with hypoestrogenic and end ometriosis symptoms. CONCLUSION: Treatment of endometriosis with nafarelin was associated with f ewer days of moderate or severe hot flashes as compared to leuprolide and w ith greater improvement in QOL after treatment in patients with severe symp toms at baseline.