New treatment options in urogenital atrophy.

Introduction/objective. Vaginal atrophy is a disease associated with menopause caused by a definite decrease in ovarian hormones, with a negative impact on patients’ quality of life. Systemic and local hormone replacement therapy is the current treatment for vaginal atrophy. The adoption of new long-term therapeutic strategies such as injection of materials into the vaginal wall (plateletrich plasma [PRP], autologous fat graft [AFG], hyaluronic acid [HA], botulinum toxin [BTX] and collagen) is an alternative therapy, in order to suppress the painful symptoms and to control the other symptoms associated with vaginal atrophy. Methodology. We performed a search and analysis of articles published in the literature to evaluate new treatment options in vaginal atrophy and the rate of suppression of symptoms. Results. The effectiveness of treatment in vaginal atrophy is currently limited. Therefore, it is necessary to explore new therapeutic strategies to minimize the adverse effects of the current hormonal treatments. Recently, two studies in the literature demonstrate the role of regenerative medicine in the local treatment of urogenital atrophy by single local injection of autologous microfragmented adipose tissue. This could be a new viable solution for these patients, as it not only helps to relieve symptoms, but also counteracts the mechanisms that lead to menopausal genitourinary atrophy. Discussion and conclusions. Although promising, the available evidence is based on a limited number of well-conducted clinical trials. Therefore, properly constructed clinical trials are required to obtain more conclusive results on the promising role of autologous and microfragmented adipose tissue as a safe, feasible and effective therapeutic approach for the treatment of postmenopausal urogenital atrophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]