PURPOSE: to correlate endometrial thickening diagnosed by ultrasonography with hysteroscopic findings in postmenopausal women. METHODS: a transversal study with hysteroscopic evaluation was performed in 121 postmenopausal women, with endometrial thickening diagnosed through transvaginal ultrasonography. In 98 women there was no history of hormonal replacement therapy, while the remaining 23 received different types of hormone; 55 patients complained of vaginal bleeding and the remaining did not present this condition. The endoscopic examinations were performed in the outpatient clinic, using a 4 mm rigid hysteroscope. For uterine cavity distention carbon dioxide (CO2) was used. Biopsy was performed in all patients, with a 3 mm Novak type curette, and the collected material was submitted to a histopathological study. RESULTS: endometrial thickening varied from 6 to 38 mm, with a mean of 10.7 ± 5.3 mm. The hysteroscopic findings were: polypoid lesion in 51 patients (42.1%); atrophic endometrium in 15 patients (12.4%); senile synechia in 15 patients (12.4%), focal thickening in 13 patients (10.7%); cerebroid lesion in 6 patients (5.0%); proliferative endometrium in 5 patients (4.1%); mucus in 5 patients (4.1%); myoma in 4 patients (3.3%); secreting endometrium in 3 patients (2.5%); endometrial hyperplasia in 3 patients (2.5%); and cystic atrophy in 1 patient (0.8%). Correlation between hysteroscopic findings and cytopathology was observed in 30 of 51 cases of polypoid lesion, in 12 of 15 cases of atrophic endometrium and in all cases in which the diagnosis of endometrial hyperplasia or adenocarcinoma was suspected. CONCLUSION: in the majority of the patients, the hysteroscopic examinations revealed that there was no genuine endometrial thickening but rather other types of lesion in the uterine cavity.
Endometrial thickening; Menopause; Hysteroscopy; Endometrium
