Experience with Gestrinone Therapy in the Infertile Patient (Mild Endometriosis)

During a one-year period (1985) 40 consecutive infertile patients for which mild endometriosis was diagnosed by laparoscopy were treated with gestrinone (Roussel-Uclaf, Paris, France), 2.5 mg twice a week, during 4 months. All these patients had infertility of long duration (57 months). Infertility could not be sufficiently explained in view of the results of the basic work-up, either that this basic work-up was totally normal, or that anomalies exhibited were not sharp enough to be the only probable reason for the infertile condition. Gestrinone therapy was well tolerated in the majority of the cases. The main discomfort was due to frequent bleeding (24%). Four spontaneous pregnancies were obtained with a main delay between the end of therapy and the beginning of pregnancy of 8 months. Two more pregnancies were obtained by in vitro fertilization (13 cycles, 11 patients, 2 pregnancies). Conclusions are that gestrinone is a well-tolerated therapy, but its efficacy on endometrial implants and on subsequent infertility associated with endometriosis remains to be confirmed.