At least 1 in 10 women are living with endometriosis. Women with endometriosis often experience a variety of symptoms like heavy periods, extreme pelvic pain, pain during intercourse, back pain. While in some cases they may not even be aware that they have the condition until they have trouble conceiving. The endometriosis condition can be treated with the help of medications that can include pain relievers or hormonal therapy and even surgically.
If the endometriosis is mild then surgery has found to improve the fertility. The surgical treatment will involve removing or burning the endometriosis via a key-hole surgery or laparoscopically. The laparoscopic procedure is also a means to diagnose endometriosis. The best part is that the treatment of the same can also be done at the same time as the diagnosis. Laparoscopy can help to find out where the endometriosis is and how extensive it is and also to make sure that there isn’t any other underlying medical problem that is causing symptoms.
During the laparoscopy procedure, instead of making a large abdominal incision, the surgeon inserts a lighted viewing instrument called a laparoscope through a small incision. If the surgeon needs better access other small incisions can be made to insert other surgical instruments. The surgeon will then proceed to remove any visible endometriosis implants and scar tissue or any cyst found growing on the endometrioma.
To get rid of the endometriosis any one of the several surgical techniques can be employed like excision, endometrial ablation which uses freezing, heating, electricity, or laser beams to destroy the tissue. Ablation can be used for the spots of endometriosis throughout the pelvis. Laparoscopic excision surgery is considered to be the gold standard for surgical treatment of the endometriosis as the goal of the surgery is to remove endometrial lesions while preserving healthy tissue. After the procedure the incisions will be sutured up. The surgical treatment of endometriosis has found to be effective and it never recurred in around 70 percent of women even 5 years after the surgery.
A laparoscopy will be recommended if there is severe abdominal pain due to the endometriosis, or if hormone therapy doesn’t seem to help with the symptoms or if the endometriosis is believed to be interfering with the bladder or bowel and if it is causing infertility. But all endometriosis cannot be treated with the laparoscopic procedure. When the endometriosis affects other organs like the ureter, bowel then other specialist surgeries will be required. This procedure though may not be suitable for someone with advanced stages of endometriosis.
A laparoscopy for endometriosis is a minimally invasive procedure and quite a non-risky one as well. The surgery will be performed under general anesthesia and most people are released from the hospital on the same day. For cases with any complications overnight monitoring may be required. At least 8 hours before the procedure food and water intake will need to be stopped. After the laparoscopic procedure showering may not be allowed for 48 hours to let the incisions heal.
