Endometriosis: Part I. Basic concept

Endometriosis, manifested by pain and infertility, is a chronic inflammatory disease, associated with a large disability of daily living, causing a socio-economic diastrophic problem and burden. The main goal of therapy attempts to reduce pain, correct infertility and possibly avoid or delay occurrence of long-term endometriosis-associated sequelae, such as fibrosis, adhesion and malignant transformation. Although the advanced technology (minimally invasive diagnostic tools, magnetic resonance imaging, high-resolution vaginal ultrasound etc.) and the better understanding pathophysiology of endometriosis for development of new therapeutic strategy is continuous for both diagnosis and management of endometriosis, there is still presence of many debated issues, which commonly occur in routine clinical practice. For example, the timing and duration of medications may be one of most frequently discussed issues. In this part I, we would like to overview the general background knowledge (basic concept) about the endometriosis, and emphasize the role of clinical diagnosis and possible empirical medical treatment (therapeutic test) for the management of women with endometriosis.