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After surgery, hormone treatment is often restarted unless you are trying to get pregnant. During the operation, the surgeon can locate any areas of endometriosis and may remove the endometriosis patches.
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Surgery is usually chosen for severe symptoms, when hormones are not providing relief or if you are having fertility problems. Once you stop taking the medicine, your menstrual cycle returns, but you may have a better chance of getting pregnant. This treatment causes a temporary menopause, but it also helps control the growth of endometriosis. This medicine stops the body from making the hormones responsible for ovulation, the menstrual cycle, and the growth of endometriosis. If you are trying to get pregnant, your doctor may prescribe a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist. Hormonal treatment works only as long as it is taken and is best for women who do not have severe pain or symptoms. But the hormonal IUD may not help your pain and bleeding due to endometriosis for that long. The hormonal IUD protects against pregnancy for up to 7 years. Intrauterine device (IUD) to help reduce pain and bleeding.These types of hormonal birth control are available in the pill or the shot and help stop bleeding and reduce or eliminate pain. Extended-cycle (you have only a few periods a year) or continuous cycle (you have no periods) birth control.If you are not trying to get pregnant, hormonal birth control is generally the first step in treatment. Talk to your doctor about your treatment options. There is no cure for endometriosis, but treatments are available for the symptoms and problems it causes. Other times, they need to take a small sample of tissue and study it under a microscope to confirm this. Sometimes doctors can diagnose endometriosis just by seeing the growths. Surgery is the only way to be sure you have endometriosis. Laparoscopy is a type of surgery that doctors can use to look inside your pelvic area to see endometriosis tissue. Once you stop taking them, your pain may come back. But, these medicines work only as long as you take them. If your pain gets better with hormonal medicine, you probably have endometriosis.Gonadotropin (go-na-doh-TRO-pen) -releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists block the menstrual cycle and lower the amount of estrogen your body makes.Hormonal birth control can help lessen pelvic pain during your period.If your doctor does not find signs of an ovarian cyst during an ultrasound, he or she may prescribe medicine: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is another common imaging test that can make a picture of the inside of your body. Both kinds of ultrasound tests use sound waves to make pictures of your reproductive organs. The doctor or technician may insert a wand-shaped scanner into your vagina or move a scanner across your abdomen. Your doctor may do an ultrasound to check for ovarian cysts from endometriosis. Smaller areas of endometriosis are harder to feel. During a pelvic exam, your doctor will feel for large cysts or scars behind your uterus. The doctor will talk to you about your symptoms and do or prescribe one or more of the following to find out if you have endometriosis: If you have symptoms of endometriosis, talk with your doctor. For instance, endometrial tissue has been found in abdominal scars. During a surgery to the abdominal area, such as a Cesarean (C-section) or hysterectomy, endometrial tissue could be picked up and moved by mistake. Research is looking at whether endometriosis is a problem with the body's hormone system. The hormone estrogen appears to promote endometriosis. Immune system disorders and certain cancers are more common in women with endometriosis. A faulty immune system may fail to find and destroy endometrial tissue growing outside of the uterus. Because endometriosis runs in families, it may be inherited in the genes. Some of the tissue shed during the period flows through the fallopian tube into other areas of the body, such as the pelvis. Retrograde menstrual flow is the most likely cause of endometriosis.
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Researchers are studying possible causes: No one knows for sure what causes this disease.
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