Endometriosis Awareness Walk by Goethe Zentrum, Apollo Hospitals and Saptaparni

Women take out a Candle Light Walk to raise awareness about Endometriosis!

Hyderabad, March 31, 2016: Apollo Hospitals, Goethe Zentrum & Saptaparni hosted a Candle Light Walk to raise awareness about Endometriosis - a disease in which tissue that normally grows inside the uterus grows outside it leading to symptoms of pelvic pain and infertility, on Thursday from Saptaparini to GVK Mall, Banjara Hills. Prominent women from different walks of life including Ms Chandana Chakrabarti, Ms Rekha Lahoti, Ms Bilkees Latif, Dr Rooma Sinha, Gynaecologist, Apollo Hospitals; Dr K Anuradha, Anu Test Tube Baby Centre, and others, participated in the walk.

Tissue that forms the lining of the uterus (endometrium) is sometimes present in other places like ovaries, fallopian tubes, cul-de-sac (behind uterus), intestines, rectum, bladde in some women. Endometrial tissue outside the uterus also responds to changes in hormones. It also breaks down and bleeds like the lining of the uterus during the menstrual cycle every month. The bleeding inside the uterus has a passage to come out as menstrual bleeding. The bleeding at these extra uterine sites collect and form cysts (chocolate cysts) or adhesions. This can cause pain, especially before and during period. Endometriosis is found in about one third of infertile women. Endometriosis is a progressive disease. The source of the problem is the hormonal changes associated with periods and presence of endometrium at abnormal places.

Young women in their reproductive age, women with infertility, with uterine defects like septum or bicornuate uterus are at risk of this disease. It can run in the family. The common symptoms are pelvic pain (pain in lower abdomen and back), which may occur with sex, during bowel movements or urination, or just before or during menstrual cycle. Menstrual bleeding may occur more than normal or in abnormal pattern. Endometriosis also may cause infertility. A feeling of gaseous distension around the periods and some may have no symptoms.

Treatment for endometriosis depends on the extent of the disease, presenting symptoms, and whether one wants to have children at that point in life. It may be treated with medication, surgery, or both. Although treatments may relieve pain and infertility temporarily, symptoms may come back after treatment.

Medication is used both to relieve pain and to keep the disease under control and where medications do not provide permanent cure, surgery is the option. Minimally invasive surgery like Laparoscopic surgery is the standard approach to remove endometriosis and the scarred tissue around it. Robotic assisted laparoscopic surgery these days gives the advantage of precise and complete removal of all endometriosis with preservation of ovarian tissues for future child bearing.