Treatment of abnormal uterine bleeding using levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine devices: experience from a Turkish tertiary hospital

A. Buhur, Ö. Ünal

Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. drbuhur@hotmail.com

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• Gynecology
• Obstetrics
• Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the efficacy of the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine device in treating menorrhagia using a pictorial blood assessment chart.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively examined 822 patients treated with a levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine device for abnormal uterine bleeding between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2020, at a Turkish tertiary hospital. A pictorial blood assessment chart was used to determine each patient’s blood loss amount, which involves the use of an objective scoring system to determine the amount of bleeding in towels, pads, or tampons. Descriptive statistical values were presented as mean and standard deviation, and paired sample t-tests were used for within-group comparisons of normally distributed parameters. Moreover, in the part of the descriptive statistical analysis, the mean and median values for the non-normally distributed tests were not close to each other, indicating that the data obtained and analyzed in this study had a non-normal distribution.

RESULTS: Of 822 patients, 751 (91.4%) exhibited a significant reduction in menstrual bleeding after device insertion. Moreover, a significant decrease was observed in the pictorial blood assessment chart scores 6 months postoperatively (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine device is an easy-to-insert, safe, and effective treatment option for abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB). Furthermore, the pictorial blood assessment chart is a simple and reliable tool for evaluating menstrual blood loss in women before and after the insertion of levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine devices.

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