A comparative study of centchroman versus evening primrose oil in treatment of mastalgia

Abstract

Background: Breast pain or mastalgia is one of the most common symptoms presenting to general surgeons. Approximately 60-70% of the women experience some type of breast pain at some point of their lives. Mastalgia may be classified as cyclical and non-cyclical. In cyclical mastalgia the pain intensity is changing during the menstrual cycle. In non-cyclical mastalgia there is no other obvious cause present, the pain is considered to be originating from the breast and the pain remains unchanged during the menstrual cycle. If the pain persists there are a variety of pharmacological agents for treatment of mastalgia. These include 3-6 months course of low dose tamoxifen (10 mg) or evening primrose oil. Other agents include bromocriptine and danazol but are obsolete now days. Newer treatments include centchroman and topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory preparations. In pursuit of finding an effective safe and economical agent to treat it, plan to compare centchroman to evening primrose oil as treatment of mastalgia.Methods: In this study, two groups with 40 patients each will be taken and treatment will be given for 12 weeks and follow up to 24 weeks will be done without medication to assess sustained response or recurrence of mastalgia.Results: Centchroman is a non-steroidal drug found to be effective in the treatment of mastalgia with early and better relief in a time period of 3 months with minimal side effects as compared to evening primrose oil.Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that Centchroman therapy offers safe, effective and economical alternative to Evening Primrose oil for treatment of mastalgia.