Can endometriosis cause infertility?

Can endometriosis cause infertility?

04-04-2018

What is endometriosis?

We talk about endometriosis when the mucous membrane surrounding the uterus is found outside of it. This may occur in the fallopian tubes, ovaries or pelvic wall lining tissues as well. Most commonly, it affects the peritoneum and causes great pain. It may often be the most common cause of painful menstruation.

If mucous membranes appear elsewhere, on one hand, they cause sterile inflammation, and on the other, clusters develop around them causing chronic pain. And even if they appear at the fallopian tubes, infertility can easily develop.

What are the symptoms of endometriosis?

The characteristic symptom of endometriosis is the pain itself, but its severity does not necessarily indicate the disease status. There are some women with moderate endometriosis with fierce pain, while others may suffer from more severe endometriosis with tolerable symptoms.

  • cyclic pain
  • painful menstruation
  • pelvic pain
  • increased menstrual bleeding
  • bleeding between menstrual cycles
  • painful sexual life
  • bloody stools
  • bloody urine
  • infertility

It is important to emphasize that endometriosis should be distinguished from other diseases associated with pelvic pain (for example, pelvic inflammatory disease or ovarian cyst). Irritable bowel syndrome may also be associated with intermittent diarrhea and constipation or convulsive abdominal pain.

Causes of endometriosis

Although the exact causes of endometriosis are unknown, there may be accumulations in the family.

Some theories presuppose a weakness of the immune system that the mucous membranes would otherwise appear outside of the uterus, but the normal functioning immune system is against their proliferation.

In addition, the following factors may also trigger the disease:

  • persistent, low levels of inflammation in the body,
  • sedentary lifestyle,
  • chronic stress,
  • incorrect and hectic nutrition habits,
  • abdominal trauma (extreme movement, abdominal stress caused by an accident or surgery).

Complications of endometriosis

Endometriosis does not take the tissue boundaries into account when spreading, which means that if it is not treated, it can affect all the surrounding organs. It will affect the uterus, the ovaries, the uterus, the bladder, and all parts of the pelvic. After a while, this can cause very strong or even unbearable pain. Infertility could be a serious complication of endometriosis, which can occur when the fallopian tube is also reached by endometrial lesions.

How do we diagnose endometriosis?

Gynecological tests

Endometriosis is already recognized to the specialist by the gynecological test before it causes the more serious symptom. If the disease causes vaginal endometrial cysts, the disease can be easily detected by vaginal ultrasonography.

If the disease is already causing symptoms, it is primarily characterized by cyclic pain that is caused by extracellular endometrial cells (anywhere within the body).

Endoscopy

The more severe symptoms make clearer the physician’s task, which is why he orders an endoscopic examination to see the urinary bladder and the colon with the camera.

Surgical procedure

When it comes to surgical procedures, the primary reason is that the specialist examines the abdominal cavity by laparoscopy (to find the cause of the mentioned symptoms), and then detects the endometrial lesion. The size of the lesions can range from pincushion to palm endometrial lesion.

Treatment of endometriosis

The doctors’ views on the treatment of endometriosis are divided, as both surgical and pharmacological treatments are used.

Various interventions are also applied during surgical procedures, depending on the extent of the mucous membrane cells outside the uterus. The more widespread in the body, the greater the surgical intervention required to treat the disease, which is, however, much more burdensome for the patient.

Because the cause of the disease is unknown, so there is no data to prevent it. With medication and surgical treatments we can primarily remedy the symptoms and slow down the development of newer endometriosis. The chance of total healing may be increased if the patient becomes pregnant (if non-uterine endometriomas do not make the conception more difficult) or menopause ends with menstrual cycles.



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Dear Customers,

we would like to inform you that our Clinics will be closed on August 20th and 21st.

Medicover
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