Endometriosis : Treatment
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, the information on these pages is gathered from my own experience, books, websites, and other people's experience. I will not be held responsible for any injury resulting from this information. If you have a medical condition, you should seek qualified medical advice and supervision at all times.
How is it treated?
The preferred method of treatment is to surgically remove the growth during a laparoscopy, using scalpels and/or a laser. A biopsy can also be done on the growths when removed to test for cancer and to make sure it is endometriosis.
After surgery, the birth control pill is often used to control the growth as higher levels of progesterone seem to inhibit endometriosis growth. Sometime the pill will be given to teens suffering symtpoms as surgery is usually left until later.
If something prevents surgery - like too many blood vessels feeding the growths that would bleed too much if severed, a treatment of Lupron or Zolodex is administered. This artificially induces a menopause which shrinks the blood vessels feeding the growths, and sometimes even shrinking the growths. Both medications have long lasting side effects and should be used with care. Treatment time for Zolodex can be 3-6 months, anything over 6 months would cause osteoporosis.
There are natural alternatives that seem to help with the symtoms (I don't know if they help with the disease). Altering diet to be healthy, full of whole foods, no dairy, no sugar, no wheat, no fat or combinations of these seem to help a number of people. As does regular exercise, also important for those who have been on Zolodex treatments to help prevent osteoporosis. You can get natural progesterone cream which many claim help with the pain (along the same lines as how the pill helps).
