There are no specific answers to this as we are all different and the Doctor does not have a simple solution to the problem. They will offer painkillers to control the symptoms, there may also be some hormone treatment to try and reduce the endometriosis. From a questionnaire given sufferers a few years ago showed that on average it took 5 years to see a specialist and over 9 years to be diagnosed with this disease. Lets take a closer look at the options.
Diagnosis
Various blood markers have been looked at to see if people have endometriosis but these have not been very accurate, so the definitive test is the laperoscopy when the gyneocologist actually see the signs of the disease. However, even if they cannot see the endometriosis it could still be present as it could be hidden, either microscopically or subcutaneously.
Drug Treatments
There are a number of different options with drug treatments but basically they try to switch off the bodies monthly cycle. There are different drugs types of drugs that can be used, the most common first option is the use of the pill to switch off periods by making the body think that it is pregnant. Another type fools the body into thinking it is in the menopause, while another type just switches off the signally mechanism. The idea is that if the endometrium is no longer swelling with blood and shedding each month then the endometrial patches will also not bleed.
Surgical Treatments
The main operation of choice is the laparoscopy, where several small incisions are made in the tummy. The options will depend on the gynaecologist and the equipment they have been trained to use and what is available at the hospital. Laser treatment is one option and here the laser is used to burn away the endometrial tissue. Micro surgery is another where small cutting instruments are used to cut away the endometrial tissue. Robotic surgery could also be used, at this point in time there is no great advantage to robotic surgery over a good laperoscopic surgeon. Either way the plan is to remove the endometrial implants. Cysts can also be aspirated during the operation and some adhesions may be able to be removed.
Other more drastic surgery, like ooferectomy (removal of the ovaries) or even hysterectomy (removal of the womb) may be
suggested but these must be considered as a last resort. There is some research that indicates that these drastic
operation may shorten ones life expectancy.
With any surgical proceedure, at the moment we cannot say that
they completely irradicate endometriosis or its symptoms, in some cases the
symptoms return after a couple of years.