Endometriosis

What is endometriosis?

Endometriosis is a disorder that results when your endometrium, or uterine lining tissue, starts growing outside of the uterus. The abnormal tissue can spread to fallopian tubes, ovaries, bladder, bowel and other organs in the pelvis and even further. This tissue continues to function normally, thickening and breaking down each month during your menstrual cycle, but doesn’t have anywhere to exit and causes inflammation and scarring.

The trapped tissue and bleeding causes worsening irritation and inflammation in the pelvic and surrounding tissues and can even affect your other organs.

What are the symptoms of endometriosis?

Endometriosis causes pain that can range from mild and irregular to constant and intense. Other common symptoms of endometriosis may include pain during sex, urination or bowel movements and worsening pain during your period and ovulation time.

If left untreated, you can also experience difficulties becoming pregnant due to endometriosis related scarring internally. Your risk for ovarian cancer is higher as well. 

Because the symptoms of endometriosis can be confused with other health conditions, and because it gets worse over time, it’s important to get a diagnosis as soon as possible.

How is endometriosis diagnosed?

To confirm your pain or problem is the result of endometriosis, your Swor Women’s Care OBGYN specialist listens carefully to your history and then completes a comprehensive general and pelvic examination, feeling for abnormalities in and around your reproductive organs. We would also advise a real-time clinician-performed vaginal ultrasound to get a complete internal view of your pelvic and surrounding organs, and look for obvious or not-so obvious signs of endometriosis.

In some cases, the Swor Women's Care expert gyn surgeons will advise a laparoscopy procedure, to diagnose and treat suspected endometriosis. Laparoscopy is a minimally-invasive outpatient surgery procedure in which a slender camera device is inserted through a small incision in the navel to get a closer look inside the pelvic and surrounding organs. During this procedure, the plan is to see and treat any visible endometriosis lesions using lasers and other advanced tools to completely remove (excise) them, restore normal function and protect fertility.

What treatment options are available for endometriosis?

Initially, your provider may recommend over-the-counter pain and anti-inflammatory medications to relieve symptoms of endometriosis. We also advise modifications in diet and activities to help. We may also recommend birth control or hormone therapy such as progestins or new targeted drug treatments to slow the growth of endometrial tissue. We participate in clinical research trials that may offer the latest treatment options not available to everyone.

If these therapies don’t work or you can’t tolerate hormones or targeted drug treatment, our OBGYN specialist surgeons offer various minimally invasive surgery options to remove excess endometrial tissue through small incisions. In more advanced cases of endometriosis, we may recommend a minimally-invasive hysterectomy option to remove the uterus and any diseased tissues. If future child-bearing is desired, we always suggest options to try and protect and improve fertility. 

Find out more about available services for diagnosing and treating endometriosis by scheduling a consultation at Swor Women’s Care.