What are the treatments for endometriosis?

For patients with endometriosis, it is necessary to understand the relevant methods of treating endometriosis. So what are the methods of treating endometriosis? Next, this article will introduce you to common methods of treating endometriosis. Friends who want to know more about the relevant knowledge can take a look at it. Please see the detailed introduction below.

What are the treatments for endometriosis? Treatment options for endometriosis vary depending on the severity of the disease, the patient's age, and fertility status. If the condition is severe, or manifests as severe dysmenorrhea, or if pelvic examination reveals definite endometriotic nodules, medication or surgical treatment must be taken.

1. Drug treatment

Drugs are used to counteract or suppress cyclical endocrine stimulation of the ovaries. Initially, testosterone-type male hormones were used, but they had serious side effects and were not strong enough, so they were gradually abandoned. Later, it gradually developed into pseudo-pregnancy therapy and pseudo-menopause therapy.

(1) Pseudo-pregnancy therapy: It is a method of using powerful progestin contraceptive drugs, which are taken continuously for a long time in larger doses to stop menstruation. The endometrium and ectopic endometrium react to the drug in a way similar to pregnancy, so it is also called pseudo-pregnancy therapy. There are many drugs used for this therapy, and they are still being developed. The main ones for oral administration include progesterone acetate, provira, and nemethicone, while the ones for intramuscular injection include progesterone caproate. This treatment must be continued for at least six months before the ectopic endometrium can stop moving and eventually shrink, thus producing therapeutic effects.

(2) Pseudomenopause therapy: In the 1970s and 1980s, foreign countries mainly used a drug called danazol, which is a derivative of androgen and has a good effect. It is also being used in my country, but it has relatively large side effects. Since the 1980s, a drug called goserelin has been widely used abroad. It can strongly suppress the function of the ovaries, making them almost completely ineffective, thereby achieving the purpose of treatment. Moreover, since this drug is a long-acting sustained-release preparation, it only needs to be injected subcutaneously once a month, which is very convenient. This type of drug can cause the endometrium to atrophy similar to that of menopausal women, so it is called pseudomenopause therapy.

2. Surgical treatment

It is generally believed that chocolate cysts occurring on the ovaries are often larger in size, or endometriotic nodules occurring in other parts of the body with a diameter of more than 2 cm are difficult to control with drugs and require surgical treatment; or if the condition does not improve after six months or even a year of drug treatment, surgical removal should also be considered. If the patient is young and has no children, surgery usually only removes the endometriosis, while preserving the uterus and normal ovarian tissue. It's called conservative surgery. This surgery preserves the possibility of fertility, but the chance of recurrence is greater. If the patient already has children and is older (35), the uterus can be removed at the same time as the endometriotic lesions are removed, while preserving the normal ovarian tissue. In the long run, this method is better than conservative surgery, but it cannot absolutely prevent recurrence. If the patient is near menopause, or the endometriosis is too extensive to be completely eradicated, the uterus and ovaries should be removed during surgery.

The above is an introduction to the methods of treating endometriosis. I believe that after reading this article, everyone has some understanding of the methods of treating endometriosis. From the above we can know that the common methods of treating endometriosis are drug treatment and surgical treatment. As for which method to choose, it is related to the severity of the disease.