• Shahla Chaichian, Ali Kabir, Adolfazl Mehdizadehkashi, Khaled Rahmani, Mehrdad Moghimi, and Bahram Moazzami.
• Minimally Invasive Techniques Research Center in women, Tehran Medical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
• Pain Physician. 2017 Mar 1; 20 (3): 185-195.

BackgroundPain is considered as one of the main symptoms of endometriosis. The treatment for endometriosis remains controversial.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to compare the effect of medical or surgical treatments for pain-relief in patients with endometriosis.Study DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis.SettingPublished papers about evaluating pain treatment in endometriosis in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar.MethodsAfter searching all studies evaluating pain treatment in endometriosis in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, there were 23 related studies, containing 1,847 patients enrolled in our study. We used a variety of tests: fixed and random effects models, Q Cochrane test and I2 index, Egger and Begg tests, forest and funnel plots, Trim and fill method, and meta-regression in our analysis.ResultsThere was no statistically significant difference in pain improvement between surgical and medical treatment. Interestingly, pain relief was more prominent longer after treatment. Both clinical trials and cross sectional studies showed higher improvement in pain than cohort studies. High quality studies and lower body mass index (BMI) had a greater effect on pain relief. All studies were heterogeneous, but there was no publication bias.LimitationsThere was a higher probability of risk of bias in blinding, random sequence generation, and selective outcome reporting in clinical trial studies entered in our meta-analysis.ConclusionsOur results could not demonstrate the preference of each medical or surgical treatment effect for dysmenorrhea in endometriosis. Additional data is required before a standardized medical protocol can be offered, but we believe this study may encourage clinicians to consider a less invasive alternative for treating their patients' chronic pelvic pain in the near future.Key words: Endometriosis, pain, meta-analysis, therapy, disease management.

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