Maintenance dienogest therapy following adjuvant gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist treatment after uterus-sparing surgery in adenomyosis: A retrospective cohort study

Objective: To investigate the safety and efficacy of adjuvant gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-a) treatment followed by maintenance dienogest (DNG) therapy after uterus-sparing surgery.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study. A total of 190 patients with severe adenomyosis underwent uterus-sparing surgery between January 2010 and June 2020. Of these patients, 90 were analyzed. Forty-six patients (control group) received adjuvant 6-month GnRH-a therapy alone after uterus-sparing surgery, and 44 patients (maintenance group) received postoperative 6-month GnRH-a treatment followed by maintenance DNG therapy (2 mg/day orally). The median follow-up period was 18 months. The study was analyzed using generalized estimating equations.

Results: At baseline, the characteristics of patients in each group were comparable. Compared with the control group, the maintenance group had a significant improvement in the visual analog scale score of dysmenorrhea (P < 0.001), hemoglobin level (P = 0.004), and uterine volume (P = 0.004) from baseline to 18 months after uterus-sparing surgery. The symptom recurrence rate was significantly lower in the maintenance group than in the control group (4.6% vs. 37.0%, P < 0.001).

Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that combinatorial treatment with GnRH-a (adjuvant treatment) and DNG (maintenance therapy) represents a safe and effective short-term therapy after uterus-sparing surgery for adenomyosis.