Back to Journals » International Journal of Women's Health » Volume 4

Advantages of the association of resveratrol with oral contraceptives for management of endometriosis-related pain

Authors Maia Jr. H, Haddad C, Pinheiro, Casoy J

Received 8 August 2012

Accepted for publication 5 September 2012

Published 10 October 2012 Volume 2012:4 Pages 543—549

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/IJWH.S36825

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 3



Hugo Maia Jr,1,2 Clarice Haddad,2 Nathanael Pinheiro,3,4 Julio Casoy2

1Itaigara Memorial Day Hospital, 2Centro de Pesquisas e Assistência em Reprodução Humana, 3ImagePat, Pathology Laboratory, 4Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Background: The effect of resveratrol on the management of endometriosis-related pain was investigated in 12 patients who failed to obtain pain relief during use of an oral contraceptive containing drospirenone + ethinylestradiol.
Methods and results: The addition of 30 mg of resveratrol to the contraceptive regimen resulted in a significant reduction in pain scores, with 82% of patients reporting complete resolution of dysmenorrhea and pelvic pain after 2 months of use. In a separate experiment, aromatase and cyclo-oxygenase-2 expression were investigated in the endometrial tissue of 42 patients submitted to laparoscopy and hysteroscopy for the management of endometriosis. Sixteen of these patients were using oral contraceptives alone prior to hospital admission, while the remaining 26 were using them in combination with resveratrol. Inhibition of both aromatase and cyclo-oxygenase-2 expression was significantly greater in the eutopic endometrium of patients using combined drospirenone + resveratrol therapy compared with the endometrium of patients using oral contraceptives alone.
Conclusion: These results suggest that resveratrol potentiates the effect of oral contraceptives in the management of endometriosis-associated dysmenorrhea by further decreasing aromatase and cyclo-oxygenase-2 expression in the endometrium.

Keywords: resveratrol, drospirenone, endometriosis, dysmenorrhea, cyclo-oxygenase-2

Creative Commons License © 2012 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.