ABSTRACT
Management of abnormal uterine bleeding has been advanced by the introduction of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) classifications. The FIGO group of ovulatory disorders overlap what would be ‘functional endometrial disorders’ that are abnormalities of endometrial morphology that have been attributed to ovarian dysfunction. Prolonged or excessive bleeding in reproductive-age women without organic disease is termed ‘dysfunctional uterine bleeding’. Dysregulation of proliferation and apoptosis may contribute to an increase in apoptosis in the proliferative phase of the endometrium of some women with abnormal uterine bleeding of unknown cause. During an anovulatory cycle, there is follicular development without ovulation and subsequent corpus luteum formation. The endometrium in an anovulatory cycle is subjected to the stimulus of a relative estrogen excess that is unopposed by progesterone. Proliferation of the endometrium is dependent upon an adequate supply of estrogen from the ovaries.
