Long-term treatment of uterine fibroids with uliprisal acetate improves health-related quality of life

Objectives: Up to 60% of women with uterine fibroids have heavy, prolonged menstrual bleeding, which has a profoundly negative impact on quality of life. Hysterectomy affords a permanent solution but means that women will be unable to have any (more) children. It is therefore important that women can access long-term treatments that improve quality of life whilst retaining fertility. The objective was to determine the impact of repeated threemonth courses of medication (ulipristal acetate; UPA) on the quality of life in women with symptomatic uterine fibroids.

Design: Data are from the PEARL-III extension study. This multicentre clinical study investigated the effects of four 3-month courses of Ulipristal Acetate. Quality of Life was assessed at Baseline and five further assessments. Follow up was 3 months after the fourth course of treatment.

Method: Participants (N=99) were premenopausal women with symptomatic uterine fibroids attending European gynaecology centres who completed the Uterine Fibroid Specific quality of life questionnaire and the EQ-5D current health state measure at each
assessment. Data were analysed using within-subjects ANOVAs

Results: Significant improvements were found in quality of life and current health state after the first course of treatment which were sustained up to and including Follow-up.

Conclusion: The results suggest that long-term management of fibroids with UPA could be an important way of improving the quality of life of women with fibroids.