Endo treatment

[Ellie9621]

Hello guys,

Just looking for some advice really!

After a very long fight of being told it’s all in my head, everything’s ok and I’m only young just see how things go.. I have finally had my laparoscopy a month ago and been diagnosed with endo!

They couldn’t burn it off due to it being behind my womb so I am now on the Prostap injectection.

My worry is that I can’t get my head around what it does. Does it get rid of it completely? How do they know if it has worked? What if it doesn’t are there other treatment pathways?

Thanks guys!

[luthien]

Hi, sorry to hear you're feeling this way

It is awful to not have answers, it's annoying that the docs didn't talk through this all with you.

Hormones will not get rid of endo, nothing can, unfortunately. Surgery removes all they can visibly see but cells are microscopic. Hormones can shrink endo and make it dormant so it doesn't cause any symptoms, however if you stop them it will grow again or could not - that's what makes it difficult - what it does and what symptoms it causes are very different from woman to woman. The only way they know it has "worked" is reduced symptoms in comparison to when you were not on hormones.

Other treatment pathways - have a look at the guidelines on the National Institute for Health Care and Excellence website - google "nice pathways" then select the first option on google and search in the NICE Pathways website for endometriosis - there it has a complete list of guidance for what the doctors should be doing - hopefully it will help you to see what happens next - I found it useful when discussing options with my doctor before I considered surgery.