Endometriosis: The pain that cannot be ignored

When it comes to gynecological diseases, most women will often ignore the initial symptoms due to fear of sharing and having consultation. This is most likely to lead to complicated complications and unfortunate consequences. Endometriosis is not an exception, commonly beginning with severe pain during menstruation that, if not treated promptly, can cause infertility in women.

Always listen to your body

Coming back to work and normal living after an endometrioscopy surgery at FV hospital, Ms. N.H feels that her health has improved much more, she no longer has to deal with pain, dyspepsia during menstruation, and especially no longer feel painful and fearful when having sex even though she and husband are expecting to have another child.

The initial symptoms of Endometriosis are often ignored due to fear of sharing and having consultation

According to Ms. H, when appearing the initial symptoms of the disease, she thought it was okay and also too busy at work so she passed on undergoing examination. But when the pain got worse, taking painkillers did not help much, she decided to visit doctors and was ordered to have surgery for the best treatment. “After this time I will always tell other women to always listen to your body and not be subjective with gynecological diseases,” Ms. H said.

According to Dr. Sophie Sanguin, a leading expert in treatment of endometriosis and laparoscopic surgery for gynecological diseases (FV Hospital), there are currently about 1 in 10 women aged 25 to 40 years old suffering from endometriosis, in the meantime, Asian women have a higher chance of getting it than women in other regions. Especially the symptoms of endometriosis are often mislead with other physiological phenomena, it is only detected after many years.

The most noticeable initial symptoms of endometriosis are severe pain during menstruation that prevents women from working or living normally. There are also some other symptoms to identify illnesses such as pain during sex and during urination, severe diarrhea, constipation, and nausea during menstruation or even extreme bleeding during or between menstrual periods. “If not treated promptly, endometriosis is very likely to lead to the risk of infertility in women and in rare cases can lead to the risk of ovarian cancer or endometrial cancer,” Dr. Sophie shared.  

Trust the modern treatment methods

Endoscopic surgery is a modern technique that brings many benefits to patients

To treat endometriosis, doctors will have to perform examination to identify the level, symptoms, and willingness of the patient to set up the most appropriate treatment plan. However, there are currently two alternatives commonly used to treat such disease. In case of early stages, analgesics in combination with hormonal adjustment can be applied. But when the patient is not responding well to medical treatments or the damage has grown and spread, surgery is the optimal option. “At FV, we can perform open or laparoscopic surgery depending on the patient’s situation. However, laparoscopic surgery is currently the priority because this is a modern technology that brings many benefits to patients such as less pain, faster recovery, reduction in hospitalization time and ensuring issue of appearance” Dr Sophie Sanguin said.

However, laparoscopic surgery requires professional skills as well as the specialized equipment. And with 10 years of experience in the field of laparoscopic surgery at Amiens University Hospital in France before coming to work at FV, Dr. Sophie Sanguin believes that she can help Vietnamese women to achieve better quality of life after treatment of endometriosis, especially by laparoscopic surgery. According to Dr. Sophie, when there are any abnormal signs, you should actively pay a visit to doctors for examination. In particular, always place your trust in the doctor you have chosen for consultation and treatment. “The doctors at FV are always responsible for explaining all the problems and questions from patients and always strive to bring patients the best treatment options,” Dr. Sophie said.

In fact, for many reasons, many women are suffering from gynecological diseases. And it’s great that modern medicine is providing very good support to female patients. Laparoscopic surgery achieves lots of advantages which are not only applied to the treatment of endometriosis but also to the majority of gynecological diseases among women.