Endometriosis medicine offers hope for patients who want children, because patients can become pregnant while being treated

A new drug against endometriosis in the womb could offer hope to patients who want children.

Called HMI-115, it dramatically reduces the pain caused by the chronic uterine condition and – for the first time – patients can become pregnant while being treated.

Endometriosis, which affects one in ten women, occurs when tissue lining the uterus grows in other parts of the body. It can cause bleeding and inflammation and, if left untreated, lead to infertility.

Although medications already exist that can reduce the debilitating symptoms, patients cannot become pregnant while taking them.

Earlier this year, a new hormone therapy, relugolix, was approved by the UK medicines regulator after being shown to dramatically reduce the impact of symptoms. However, it disrupts the menstrual cycle, meaning patients cannot become pregnant while taking it.

HMI-115 works by blocking the production of a protein produced in response to endometriosis, which is thought to cause the pain that patients suffer.

A new drug to treat endometriosis could offer hope to patients who want children, allowing them to become pregnant while receiving treatment (file photo)

Endometriosis affects one in ten women and can cause bleeding, inflammation and infertility if left untreated (file photo)

In one trial, HMI-115 reduced pain levels by an average of 42 percent. And, crucially, it didn’t seem to disrupt the menstrual cycle.

‘For the past forty years, people have been calling for a new target that provides pain relief while bypassing sex hormones. We are answering that call,” said Professor Rui-Ping Xiao, who leads the research at Tsinghua University in Shanghai.

Hope Medicine, the Chinese pharmaceutical company that makes HMI-115, says it plans to begin a larger global trial “as soon as possible.”

Patients with endometriosis wait an average of more than eight years from the onset of symptoms before receiving a diagnosis.

Last week the NHS told GPs to send all women with suspected endometriosis for a hospital scan as they feared thousands of cases would be missed.