Endometriosis is a chronic, recurrent disease associated with debilitating pain and severely reduced quality of life in many afected women [1–3]. In the absence of a defnitive cure, the main management options in endometriosis comprise surgery, hormone therapy, or a combination of these two approaches. Excision of endometrial lesions by laparotomy provides a rapid alleviation of symptoms, but lesion recurrence rates are high, estimated at 40–50% at 5 years [4]. For these women, hormone therapy postoperatively can reduce lesion recurrence and extend the pain-free period [5, 6]. Hormone therapy is also widely used as a frst-line
empirical therapy in symptomatic women and in those cases where surgery is considered impossible or is rejected by the patient.

Endometriosis is a chronic, recurrent disease associated with debilitating pain and severely reduced quality of life in many afected women [1–3]. In the absence of a defnitive cure, the main management options in endometriosis comprise surgery, hormone therapy, or a combination of these two approaches. Excision of endometrial lesions by laparotomy provides a rapid alleviation of symptoms, but lesion recurrence rates are high, estimated at 40–50% at 5 years [4]. For these women, hormone therapy postoperatively can reduce lesion recurrence and extend the pain-free period [5, 6]. Hormone therapy is also widely used as a frst-line
empirical therapy in symptomatic women and in those cases where surgery is considered impossible or is rejected by the patient.