Endometrial ablation helps women suffering from abnormal uterine bleeding
Our San Antonio OBGYN office frequently consults with women suffering from heavy and prolonged periods, or menorrhagia. In fact, one in 20 women in the United States will seek help from her OBGYN due to painful and heavy periods. Many of these women will respond well to hormone therapy interventions. For others, a procedure called endometrial ablation may be the best option.
What is endometrial ablation?
It is a non-surgical procedure that our San Antonio OBGYN team can perform in the office or in an outpatient surgical center. The purpose is to destroy the uterine cells that produce a lining each month. This significantly reduces the amount of blood flow a woman experiences. In half of cases, the flow completely stops.
How does an OBGYN perform the procedure?
The techniques used to perform an endometrial ablation vary according to a patient’s specific case. An OBGYN in our office will perform a hysteroscopy to evaluate a patient’s uterus. From there, the physicians in our San Antonio OBGYNs can tailor the procedure to meet their patient’s needs. Anesthesia also depends on the approach to perform the endometrial ablation.
Our team may use the following techniques to perform the procedure.
- Placing an electric current over the uterine lining to destroy it.
- Inserting hot or cold fluids into the uterus. The temperature of the fluids can wipe out the uterine lining.
- Using a thin probe, which emits either radio frequency or microwave energy, to eradicate the lining.
Who is a candidate?
Our San Antonio OBGYN team performs this procedure for patients who are suffering from unusually heavy periods and are not responding to hormone therapy. It may improve a patient’s quality of life if she is experiencing excessive pain and bleeding during periods.
The physicians in our San Antonio OBGYN office do not recommend endometrial ablation if a patient plans on getting pregnant in the future. Pregnancy is rare after the procedure, but if it does occur then serious risks may arise, such as tubal or ectopic pregnancies, or miscarriage. Birth control should be used until a patient enters menopause.
Contact us for more information about non-surgical endometrial ablation to treat menorrhagia.
