Endometriosis is a disease that causes nodules in a place where they don’t belong: outside the uterine cavity. This can cause pain and even infertility.
What is endometriosis
Endometriosis is a benign disease characterized by pockets of endometrium outside the uterine cavity, forming implants, nodules or endometriomas, depending on their size.
Symptoms of endometriosis
Endometriosis can present various symptoms in the person suffering from it. Some of them are:
- Progressive secondary dysmenorrhea: increasing pain in menstruation as the disease increases.
- Pain of a deep, dull, premenstrual predominance, resistant to analgesic treatment and disabling.
- Chronic pelvic pain, dyspareunia, pain on defecation or dysuria.
- Infertility
- Possible abnormal uterine bleeding.
Treatment of endometriosis
The treatment of endometriosis is aimed at preventing its progression, improving pain and restoring fertility. Medical treatment ranges from analgesia, which is rarely effective, to hormonal treatment. The type of treatment to be performed will depend on the stage of endometriosis and whether or not the patient has a gestational desire.
When to resort to surgery? Conservative surgical treatment resects the ovarian endometriomas, eliminating the greatest number of endometriosis foci and adhesions, leaving the peritoneal cavity free of disease.
Another option is radical surgical treatment, which consists of the removal of the entire genital tract when the disease has not been controlled with the previous treatments.
Endometriosis: warning signs
Any woman who presents pelvic pain, alterations in her menstruation both in quantity and pattern of bleeding, or who presents problems in becoming pregnant, should visit her gynecologist for specific tests in order to reach an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment.