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Endometriosis
Helping you with endometriosis

Endometriosis is a chronic condition that can be debilitating in a number of ways. We work with our patients to diagnose and treat endometriosis, improving fertility and allowing women to live a pain-free life.

What is endometriosis?

Endometriosis is a condition where tissue, similar to the lining of the womb, starts to grow in other places, such as the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the tissue lining of the pelvis.

This tissue also ‘bleeds’ every month, but, unlike a period, it has nowhere to leave the body – which can cause chronic pain and other symptoms.

It impacts one in 10 women and girls during their reproductive years. That’s around 1.5 million women in the UK alone.

Endometriosis symptoms

Endometriosis symptoms can vary, with some women not experiencing any, and others having very severe pain.

The most common symptoms are:

Painful, heavy or irregular periods
Pelvic, lower back or lower abdominal pain around ovulation time
Pain when having sex
You may also experience pain with bowel movements or urination, particularly during your period
Infertility

Diagnosing endometriosis

It can be difficult to diagnose endometriosis due to the variety of symptoms, however, tests to check for endometriosis include:

Pelvic exam – checking for abnormalities such as cysts on reproductive organs or scars behind the uterus
Ultrasound – this can be done via the abdomen or using a transvaginal ultrasound inserted into your vagina
MRI – providing detailed images of the organs and tissues within the body and information about the location and size of endometrial implants
Laparoscopy – in some cases, you might be referred to a surgeon to view the inside of your abdomen by inserting a small tube through a small cut in your tummy to see for any patches of endometriosis tissue. This allows your doctor to remove cysts, implants and scar tissue caused by endometriosis.

Endometriosis treatment

Sadly there is no cure for endometriosis, but there are treatments that can help ease the symptoms, such as:

Painkillers to help relieve the pain
Hormone treatment to stop the production of oestrogen in the body and slow the growth of endometriosis tissue, encouraging endometriosis tissue to grow and shed
Destroy areas of endometriosis tissue with surgery such as laparoscopy to remove or destroy areas of endometriosis tissue and help improve fertility

Endometriosis and fertility

Getting pregnant when you have endometriosis can be more difficult than usual, but the majority of women with mild to moderate endometriosis can conceive without treatment.

For those with more severe endometriosis, natural conception may be possible with the help of surgery such as laparoscopy. Otherwise, there are fertility treatments that can help women to get pregnant, such as IVF.

Once women with endometriosis get pregnant, they’re expected to have a normal pregnancy. Pregnancy can temporarily relieve painful and heavy periods and some women benefit from increased progesterone levels during their pregnancy, which is known to keep endometriosis from spreading.

All about IVF

How The Evewell can help

Here at The Evewell, not only are our fertility consultants also gynaecologists, with specialised interests in providing holistic female healthcare, but we also have one of the few surgeons and endometriosis consultants in the UK leading the way in new endoscopic techniques.

Mr Colin Davis, an endometriosis specialist in London, has pioneered laparoscopic tubal microsurgery and laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis and uterine fibroids.

If you have any concerns or are experiencing any endometriosis symptoms and would like to arrange a consultation to discuss endometriosis treatment in London, please get in touch with us to see how we can help.