Passionate, Professional, and Informative Treatment for Endometriosis

Observation alone cannot address your symptoms or stop endometriosis. The disease can continue to progress during this time which can lead to additional or worsening symptoms, including a greater risk of infertility.

It is up to every individual patient whether they wish to take further steps beyond observation. If you have minimal symptoms, less-severe endometriosis, and no concerns about future fertility, you may not want additional palliative care or surgery.

However, you must know that progression of endometriosis can lead to more severe outcomes and become more difficult to fully treat.

A major part of observational endometriosis treatment is monitoring changes in your symptoms and your disease.

There are four stages of endometriosis, classified based on the location and depth of endometrial implants, meaning the spots where the tissue is growing outside the uterus.

1. Stage IMinimal, superficial
2. Stage II
3. Stage III
4. Stage IVSevere, deep

Stage I involves a minimal amount and superficial depth of implants, while Stage IV involves severe and deep implants, large cysts on the ovaries, and dense adhesions, and sometimes bowel involvement.

The stage of your endometriosis may not correlate with your pain or symptoms. You might be dealing with a serious stage but limited pain, or severe pain at a lower stage. A higher stage of endometriosis carries other risks, bowel obstruction, ureter closure resulting in kidney damage, scarring or disease around nerves, among others.

Our team helps you understand how your endometriosis changes over time, and tells you the risks and drawbacks of different treatment approaches depending on the severity of your condition’s stage.

This option is essentially the decision to continue without treating disease or symptoms. It does not verify the suspected diagnosis and one should know that, if there is endometriosis, it may continue to grow. It is important to have a plan in place for surveillance or following the disease for any signs of progression.

Palliative treatment addresses symptoms. It does not resolve or directly treat endometriosis. When endometriosis causes you severe pain, palliation may include hormone treatments, birth control pills, physical therapy, stress management plans, and diet changes.

At EndoWest, we use colleagues with other areas of specialized training. These include: pain management providers, physical therapists focused on pelvic pain relief, and other professionals to provide a multi-disciplinary treatment approach to better support your wellness.

The most effective form of endometriosis surgery is excision surgery, as it has a focus on full removal of the diseased tissue rather than just guessing how deep to burn that we see in most compared to other forms of surgery. Whether it is a chocolate cyst or endometriosis cyst in the ovary, a deep mass in the bowel, endometriosis of the appendix, bladder, or diaphragm, or deep scarring around ureters or nerves, excision of the disease is usually possible (patients are often told it is not possible or too risky).

As always, the steps you decide to take will be what you are comfortable with. We put you in control of your care. Our team will provide you with all the information you need to make a well-reasoned choice based on your unique situation and needs.

As you continue through observation or symptom control, we make sure there is a plan in place to monitor your situation and monitor the disease for progression. This may include determining whether you are able to continue working or going day to day without experiencing severe, ongoing pain. Based on the results of your care, we will make sure you can choose other potential options for managing your symptoms and disease. The choice and timing of treatment is yours.

Because palliation cannot stop the progression of endometriosis, we continue to check in with you about whether palliation is meeting your current needs based on your own life and the stage of the disease.