Endometriosis Treatment Options | Home Remedies

(Image credit © to ER_09/Shutterstock)

What are current endometriosis treatment options? Well … there are about 3 - 18 percent of women in the U.S (more than one million women) who are affected by endometriosis -- according to a published article on MedicineNet. And in fact, this painful disorder is one of the major causes of pelvic pain. It is also one of major reasons for women in the U.S to do hysterectomy and laparoscopic surgery. You may also like to read common symptoms of endometriosis, before continuing!

Another bad news, there is still no clearly answer to prevent endometriosis. In other words, it cannot be prevented, because the cause of this painful disorder is still poorly understood. Though there is also still no cure for this disease, but with the right treatment the pain and infertility problem can be treated.

Endometriosis natural treatment (home remedies)

Home treatments

Sometimes home remedies are also helpful to relieve the pain of endometriosis. Along with the other treatments, below are some helpful tips:

1. Heat is believed can improve the blood flow, which then eventually will be helpful to ease pelvic pain. You can take a warm bath, or use a hot water bottle /a heating pad to apply friendly heat to your lower belly. But remember, don’t go too hot!
2. Another idea, lie your body down and don’t forget to put a comfortable pillow under the knees. Then in order to ease the back pressure, bring the knees up to the chest while you lie on your side!
3. For better result, biofeedback and relaxation techniques may be also helpful.
4. Don’t forget to have a regular exercise! It is also very useful to improve the blood flow and overall health. Doing your exercise regularly also can naturally increase pain-relieving endorphins which then will also be helpful to ease the pain!
5. Ask your doctor to get more tips and advices about home treatments for endometriosis!

Natural treatment

What are kind of natural treatments to treat endometriosis effectively? This is one of frequently asked questions, but unfortunately the effectiveness of these alternative treatments is debatable, because researches haven’t yet considered/looked at them for endometriosis.

Meditation and acupuncture are believed may be helpful to treat endometriosis, especially to relieve the pain. To keep safe, it’s much better to consult first with your doctor before taking these therapies. 

What are current endometriosis treatment options?

In general, medications and surgery are the most common treatments for endometriosis. The treatment options are usually closely associated with how severe the symptoms, the disease itself, and whether or not patient want to get pregnant. 

If the problem is only the pain, then the treatment is usually more focused on how to relieve the pain. For this case, hormone therapy is common option. It can help decrease the level of estrogen hormone which then will shrink the implants and eventually the pain reduction may occur.

But for patients who also want to get pregnant, surgery and infertility treatment is usually the common option. If the goal is both to treat the disease and get pregnant, the appropriately surgery is also believed by many doctors to be more effective than medical /hormonal treatments. 

In addition, in fact not all patients with endometriosis notice or have pain symptom. Moreover, over time this disease does not always get worse. Even in some patients, endometriosis may improve during pregnancy and usually improve after menopause. 

If you are in your menopause phase (about the age of 50) or if you don’t notice any symptom (particularly pain or just mild pain), and you also don’t have a plan to get pregnant -- you may not need the treatment. But to keep safe, consult more with your doctor to get more advices.

Treatment options to relieve the pain

Pain medications

To help relieve painful menstrual cramps, a pain reliever such as Motrin, Advil, or NSAIDs is usually prescribed by doctor. But if this option doesn’t work, you may need to take another treatment approach - hormone therapy may be the answer!

Hormone therapy

Changes in hormones (rise & fall) during menstrual cycle can affect the endometrial implants of patient to thicken, break down, and then bleed. For this reason, supplemental hormones are common choice. They are usually intended to maintain the level of certain female hormones at appropriately level which then eventually can reduce the pain. 

There are some prescribed hormone therapies by doctor to treat the endometriosis-related pain. But each hormone therapy can lead to some side effects, even may increase your risk of developing a certain health problem. Therefore before choosing one of them, you should also review the possible side effects that may occur.

1. Danazol therapy! It is usually purposed to increase androgen and reduce estrogen level, which then hopefully will create a menopause-like state. Unfortunately, the side effects (particularly such as facial hair and acne) that occur from this treatment can be significant. Therefore it is usually not the first choice to treat pain associated with endometriosis.
2. GnRH-a therapy! Like danazol therapy, gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist therapy is also purposed to trigger a menopause-like state. It can stop menstruation and decrease the level of estrogen, as a result can cause endometrial implants to shrink. For side effects, vaginal dryness and hot flashes may occur.
3. Progestin or Depo-Provera (Medroxyprogesterone) therapy! There are two common choices of progestin; with injectable drug (Depo-Provera shot) and with pills (oral option). This therapy also can decrease estrogen and prevent menstruation, which then can reduce the pain and can shrink endometriosis. And the side effects that may occur include; depressed mood, can affect the bone production (may increase your risk of osteoporosis), and may also cause weight gain problem.
4. Hormonal contraceptives or birth-control hormones! In most women, this option can help reduce the pain, because it can be helpful to control the hormones that are responsible for the monthly buildup of endometrial tissue. If compared to other therapies, the side effects that may occur are relatively safer -- in other words it is less likely to result side effects! Therefore, it is usually more common choice than others and even can be used for many years. And there are 3 major options if you want to use these hormonal contraceptives, you can choose birth control patches, rings, or vaginal rings.

Furthermore, another choice is aromatase inhibitors. Unfortunately this option is not currently approved. Some studies found that it may effectively reduce the pain associated with endometriosis. More studies are required to find a clearly answer!

In addition, after stopping hormone therapies, there is a chance for patients to experience a recurrence of endometriosis symptoms. In other words, sometimes a hormonal therapy is not a permanent fix!

Surgery option

Surgery is usually needed if the hormone therapies don’t work. It is usually also common choice if there other organs that are affected by endometriosis. In general, surgery is purposed to remove /cut the endometrial growths & scar tissue without removing the reproductive organs. Sometimes it is also purposed to remove adhesions. 

Laparoscopy procedure is one of common procedures in surgeries to treat endometriosis. This procedure can relieve the pain and improve the chance of patient for pregnancy -- particularly true for patients with mild /moderate stage of endometriosis. 

But sometimes ovaries and uterus must also be removed (these are usually needed for severe cases of endometriosis). These procedures are familiar known as oophorectomy and hysterectomy. They can cause premature menopause (the phase of menopause that comes earlier). Therefore, these options are usually the last choice, particularly if other treatments don’t work or if patients don’t have a plan for pregnancy.

What else you need to concern on choosing your endometriosis treatment?

Finding and having a doctor with whom you feel comfortable is also important to manage and treat your endometriosis. To make sure you get what you want, you may also need to look for a second opinion before beginning any treatment - this is helpful to ensure you know the possible outcomes and all of your options.

The following are some helpful tips and important points you need to concern when choosing the endometriosis treatment:

1. Before visiting a doctor or physician for your first consultation, write some questions that you want to ask to doctor so thus you will not miss anything that you want to ask! And make sure you get a clearly answer what you ask! 
2. Explore more all the different options of treatment! Make sure you review the advantages and disadvantages (especially the side effects) of each option! Ask also the next steps after the treatment, this is usually important to lower your risk of having recurrence endometriosis symptoms.
3. If surgery is offered for your treatment, don’t forget to ask about the experience of surgeons, and how they will handle if certain complications occur after/during surgery. Ask also about the willingness of surgeon to tape and keep operation on record!
4. Ask also about the next steps if medical treatments /surgery have not alleviated the symptoms in the past!  
5. Ask also the next steps if you also have a plan for pregnancy but surgery is still not effective to treat your fertility problem!
6. Don’t forget also to ask about the chance of involving alternative treatments along with the recommended treatments! 
7. And the last, make sure you are confident to do the treatment that you choose! Remember, it’s your body -- only you that completely know and understand the condition of your body! 

________

Reference: MayoClinic and WebMD