VIDEO: Surgery for endometriosis offers ‘longer lasting relief’

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So, endometriosis, to briefly define it, is where the lining of the uterine cavity grows outside of the uterus in the pelvis. And some of the symptoms are pelvic pain, irregular bleeding, infertility, and so these are some of the primary symptoms that patients present with. And the role of surgery in the care of endometriosis is twofold. One is to diagnose this disease, because often it is not picked up on imaging studies, and therefore, you can get an ultrasound, you can get an MRI, and many times you will not be able to see this disease. And so, when you operate on somebody, you remove the tissue that’s diseased, and you send it to pathology who confirmed the diagnosis.

That’s the first role, and the second role is that it’s also therapeutic. I try to tell my patients, “It’s like having weeds in your yard, and really what you’re doing is you’re pulling out the weeds.” And so, by removing this disease, you can debulk the disease. Obviously, there could be microscopic disease that you cannot see, but what you do see, you cut out, and therefore, some of the symptoms are decreased. And the third thing is by debulking the disease, my experience has been that when you treat them hormonally, they’re more likely to get relief from their symptoms and have longer lasting relief.