Endometriosis is a chronic disease and requires treatment depending on its severity and symptoms. Every year, around 40,000 women are newly diagnosed with endometriosis in Germany. Both medical and surgical treatment options are available.
In this article, you can find out which conservative and surgical options are available for endometriosis treatment and which specialists offer them.
In women with endometriosis, parts of the uterine lining appear outside the uterus. They can also grow into other organs. This can cause severe pain during periods and even infertility.
It is estimated that between 2 % and 30 % of all women are affected by endometriosis. The peak age is between 35 and 45 years of childbearing age.
In general, endometriosis causes non-specific pain and a variety of other non-specific symptoms. These symptoms are caused by endometriosis cells that grow into tissues and organs, where they remain subject to the hormonal influence of oestrogen. Their activity therefore follows the woman's menstrual cycle.
The so-called leading symptoms include above all
Non-specific symptoms may also occur:
In addition, affected patients may become infertile. It usually takes around 6 to 10 years between the diagnosis of "endometriosis" and the onset of symptoms.
If endometriosis is suspected, patients should ideally go to a specialized center for endometriosis therapy. In addition to a physical examination, a diagnosis is made there using special diagnostic methods. These include, among other things
Both conservative (medication) and surgical therapies are available for the treatment of endometriosis.
However, it is important to know that the disease cannot currently be cured despite endometriosis therapy. The triggering cause of endometriosis is unknown. Therefore, there is currently no causal therapy.
Endometriosis should always be treated at a specialized center and on an interdisciplinary basis.
Pain therapy is the simplest form of endometriosis drug therapy.
are intended to alleviate the patient's symptoms.
The other stage of drug therapy is hormone therapy. Ovarian oestrogens are withdrawn and the cycle is stopped in this way.
The endometriosis cells are still hormonally controlled. Therefore, the removal of oestrogen leads to milder or no symptoms.
The most important drugs for hormonal endometriosis therapy are
These lower hormone production and thus reduce hormone-dependent symptoms.
In some cases, it may also be necessary to treat endometriosis patients surgically. Indications for surgery are
Endometriosis lesions are usually operated on using a minimally invasive (laparoscopic) technique . Laparoscopy makes it possible to look around the abdominal cavity using an endoscope without having to make a large incision. In addition, the surgeon can use tiny instruments to remove the endometriosis lesions during the laparoscopy.
Theadvantage of minimally invasive surgical endometriosis therapy is the small incision. This means faster wound healing and mobilization after the operation. There is also less pain after the procedure and the possible surgical scar remains smaller.
However, the technical complexity of this operation is greater.
The chances of success with surgical endometriosis therapy are good in many cases. Patients who wanted to have children also became pregnant in the normal way after the procedure. However, neither surgical endometriosis therapy nor drug treatment leads to a long-term cure of endometriosis.
The recurrence rate after surgical or hormonal therapy is between 20 % and 80 %. As a rule, in the event of a recurrence, doctors will always first consider endometriosis treatment with medication before further surgery.
An improvement in endometriosis and the associated symptoms is possible after the menopause. During this time, a woman's hormonal balance changes and the hormone-dependent endometriosis cells are less active.
Doctors for endometriosis therapy work in specialized endometriosis centers. Specialists in gynecology in particular treat endometriosis.
Due to the nature of the disease, other organs may also be affected, which is why interdisciplinary specialists in
can be involved.
In addition, other non-medical professional groups are often involved, such as
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