Avaliação da eficácia de duas formulações de anticoncepcionais combinados de uso contínuo no tratamento da dismenorréia moderada ou grave

Abstract

Evaluate the efficacy of two different oral contraceptive formulations, one containing 20 &#61549;g of etinilestradiol and 100 &#61549;g of levonorgestrel (group 1) and the other with 30 &#61549;g of etinilestradiol and 150 &#61549;g of levonorgestrel(group 2). Methods: This is an open label, prospective and randomized clinical trial. It was calculated that 11 patients in each group were necessary to detect a difference of 1,5 points on the pain scale. After randomization, each group was evaluated at the beginning and at 6 months of treatment. The visual analogue scale was used to assess dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia and non-menstrual pain. To asses quality of life the Short-form 36 questionnaire was used and the beck inventory was used to measure depression. Adverse events and bleeding episodes were also recorded. On group 1 a total of eight patients completed the study and on group 2 there were ten patients. There was no statistical difference between the two groups after six months of treatment on all outcomes evaluated. Combining the two groups, there was a significative reduction of dysmenorrhea (p<0,0001), dyspareunia (p<0,04) and non-menstrual pain (p<0,006) with the oral contraceptives and there were no major adverse events. It was also observed an important improvement on all short-form 36 domains and reduction on 8 out of 12 Beck s questionnaires. Conclusion: Continuous oral contraceptive use is very effective on the management of moderate to severe dysmenorrhea. This effect could also be seen on quality of life improvement after the treatment. Because of the low cost and few side effects of the medication, oral contraceptives should be used as first line treatment.