Uterine artery embolization Vs hysterectomy

[Lilyfevre]

Hello all. I had an appointment with my consultant and she gave me different options for treatment. She said i could have uterine artery embolization, hysterectomy keeping my ovaries or removing them, with keyhole or open surgery, with or without hrt. I am quite worried about making this choice. Any of you had any of these treatments? Did they work? What about recovery time, side effects etc.? Any light on the subject would be greatly appreciated. ( I have been diagnosed with adenomyosis, with some superficial endometriosis on the pouch of douglas. Just had 6 months of decapeptyl injection s which did improve symptoms) Xxx

[Loulou857]

Hi! Well I’m not sure my answer will help at all but my consultant was adamant that a full hysterectomy wouldn’t help me because I would need HRT, this means that the Endometriosis wouldn’t go away so there would be no point. My treatment at the moment is prostap injections for a few months, in that time have an MRI scan to pinpoint exactly where the endo is, they suspect it’s embedded in my bowel, if it is then I will need surgery on my bowel to deal with it. It’s awful having to make these decisions! Sometimes there can be too much choice! I’m kinda glad my consultant was blunt and said that a hysterectomy wouldn’t help me, it’s giving me a clearer route going forward.

[Lilyfevre in reply to Loulou857]

Thank you for taking time to reply. My consultant said they had different types of hrt and some which did not "feed" the endometriosis could be used. I am back on decapeptyl for another 6 months with hrt this time ( as not allowed to give it without to protect against osteoporosis). She was sort of saying that the embolization was better as conservative but what I read about it scares me quite a bit! X

[Hidden in reply to Loulou857]

I had a total hysterectomy +BSO back in March and I'm taking HRT. It was one of the conditions of the surgery because I was only 39 when I had it done. It was carried out at the largest bsge centre in London by one of the chief endo specialists, so if he said it's OK to have a hyst + take HRT then I trust his judgement. They did excise all my endo at the same time though and my understanding is that if you have a hysterectomy carried out by a surgeon that can't do this, then yes, HRT could land you in trouble.