Endometriosis

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Pelvic laparoscopy

Endometriosis

Abnormal menstrual periods

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Endometriosis

Symptoms:

Increasingly painful periods
Lower abdominal pain or pelvic cramps that can by felt for a week or two before menstruation and/or during menstruation (the pain and cramps may be steady and dull or quite severe)
Pelvic or low-back pain that may occur at any time during the menstrual cycle
Pain during or following sexual intercourse
Pain with bowel movements
Premenstrual spotting
Infertility

Note: Frequently, symptoms may not be present. In fact, some women with severe cases of endometriosis have no pain at all, while some women with only a few small adhesions have severe discomfort.

Signs and tests:

A pelvic examination may reveal the presence of tender nodules, with a lumpy consistency. These are often found in the posterior vaginal wall or adnexa (ovary regions), and they may sometimes be felt in healed wound scars (especially those from episiotomy and C-section). There may be pain with uterine motion.

The uterus may be fixed or retroverted. A pelvic ultrasound test may detect an endometrioma on an ovary. A laparoscopy is necessary for a definite diagnosis, but most patients can start treatment without this.

Review Date: 5/4/2004
Reviewed By: Peter Chen, M.D., Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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