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Endometriosis Questions?

• What is endometriosis?

  Endometriosis is a condition in which the lining tissue from the inside of your uterus ends up in other places. The tissue that builds up every month and then cleans out during your period can actually end up on other parts of the body where it really doesn’t belong, like the tubes, ovaries, outside of the uterus and on the lining of your pelvis. The tissue can be active, it can build up and break down, just like it does when it is inside your uterus. We don’t even know for sure how this happens but there are lots of different theories. Endometriosis can run in families. But the whole situation is pretty complicated and we can’t say for sure that it is genetic. Genetic means there is a gene or genes that causes it to happen. We know that lots of things can be associated with endometriosis but we can’t point to one thing and say for sure that it is the cause.

• What are the symptoms of endometriosis?

  The symptoms are very common, just like the symptoms most every woman has with her periods. Most commonly you have pain and irregular bleeding. Sometimes the bleeding is heavier periods, sometimes it is bleeding in between your periods. The pain can be just with a period, or pain at random times between periods. You can see that these symptoms are just like the normal things that happen during your cycles. Other things that can happen include pain during intercourse, pain with urination or bowel movements, and difficulty getting pregnant. These vague and non-specific symptoms can all make it very difficult to diagnose endometriosis. That means that the complaints you may have are not clear enough to say for sure what is happening and they could be due to many causes.

• How is endometriosis diagnosed?

  Endometriosis can be diagnosed clinically. This means that your doctor listens to what you say happens to you and she tries to decide what is causing it and how to treat it. She will add an examination of your pelvis. She may order some tests like a sonogram. If she thinks it is endometriosis she will suggest treatments to try to decrease your pain and to try to improve the irregular bleeding or heavy periods you have. Sometimes the symptoms you talk about are not clear enough for a diagnosis. In that case you can try treatment to see if you get better OR you can choose to have a surgery. The surgery is called a laparoscopy. A small camera is put into your pelvis through a tiny cut near your belly button while you are asleep in an operating room. This allows your doctor to directly look for the tissue in the places it isn’t supposed to be and remove it.

• What is the treatment for endometriosis?

  The simplest and most effective treatment for endometriosis is over-the-counter pain medicines and birth control. Things like ibuprofen and naproxen sodium are very effective at treating the pain of endometriosis. The hormones in the various birth control options can be very effective in helping to decrease the activity of this tissue so that it doesn’t cause such painful and irregular or heavy periods. Both the combined methods of birth control, with estrogen and progestins, and progestin-only methods work to treat endometriosis as a first step. You’ll work with your doctor to try different methods until you find the most effective and successful method for you.

• Can I get pregnant if I have endometriosis?

  Here’s a question everyone asks: Can I get pregnant with endometriosis? You remember that you need to produce an egg, it gets fertilized by a sperm, and a pregnancy happens. We know that endometriosis may interfere with this process, but again, no one knows exactly why and what happens. Again, there are a lot of different theories as to what is going on, but not one known true explanation. Luckily, endometriosis is a fairly common problem so doctors are quite comfortable with treatments for you if infertility occurs.