Objectives: Endomteriosis is a highly prevalent chronic gynecologic disease, that can cause chronic pelvic pain and infertility. Endometriosis constitutes a significant and growing burden on patients, health care systems and the broader society. Our aim was to determine the annual health insurance treatment cost of endometriosis in Hungary.

Methods: Data were derived from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), for the year 2019. Data analysed included annual health insurance costs, patient numbers and cost distribution calculated for age groups. The following cost categories were included into the study: general practice care, home care, in- and outpatient care, medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and medical aids. Patients with endometriosis were identified with the following code of the International Classification of Diseases 10^th revision: N8090.

Results: In 2019, the NHIFA spent 415.8 million Hungarian Forints (HUF) on the treatment of patients with endometriosis, 1.43 million American Dollars (USD), or 1.28 million Euros (EUR). The highest patient numbers were in outpatient care (6,827 women). Pharmaceuticals (62.3% of total health insurance costs), acute inpatient care (17.1%) and outpatient care (6.7%) were the main cost drivers, while all other forms of medical care amounted to 13.9% in women. Annual health care treatment cost per patient was 128,446 HUF (442 USD/395 EUR). The highest annual health insurance costs were for women aged 30-39 and 40-49.

Conclusions: Pharmaceuticals was the major cost driver in the treatment of endometriosis. Distribution of major cost drivers did not show significant difference between the age groups. However, there were large differences in annual health insurance costs. With the increasing trend of endometriosis, medical costs are also likely to rise.