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Endometrial Ablation vs. Hysterectomy: Which Is Right for You?

Women's Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley Blog Endometrial Ablation vs. Hysterectomy: Which Is Right for You?
Endometrial Ablation vs. Hysterectomy: Which Is Right for You?

Your life up until this point has been dictated far too much by heavy periods and pelvic pain, which are having major impacts on your quality of life.

While it may be of some comfort to know that you’re not alone — one in five women in the United States is affected by heavy bleeding — it doesn’t solve your problem.

For that, we turn to the women’s health experts at Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley. At our practice, Dr. Fernando Otero and the team have extensive experience helping women manage painful, heavy menstrual cycles. 

While there are several options, moderate-to-severe cases often come down to endometrial ablation or hysterectomy.

Behind the heavy bleeding

If you’re soaking through tampons or pads every couple of hours, even at night, this constitutes heavy bleeding. And this heavy bleeding is often accompanied by painful menstrual cramps.

There are many reasons why you might experience heavy bleeding, such as:

This list is far from complete, and it also doesn’t include the reality that, in many cases, women have heavy bleeding for no known reason, which can make finding solutions frustrating, but certainly not impossible.

Obviously, our first step is to investigate why you’re experiencing heavy bleeding and pelvic pain, and what we find will guide us in treatment recommendations.

The role of endometrial ablation

One approach to heavy bleeding that has the benefit of preserving your uterus is endometrial ablation.

Under normal circumstances, the endometrium lines your uterus, and it thickens with blood and nutrients each menstrual cycle to prepare to host a fertilized egg. When the egg doesn’t arrive, you shed the lining in the form of your period.

With endometrial ablation, we destroy the lining of your uterus, which should greatly reduce your bleeding, if not stop menstrual bleeding altogether.

The benefits of endometrial ablation are that we can preserve your uterus and, better still, the procedure takes only minutes to perform right here in our offices. Please note that while we can preserve your uterus, childbearing is off the table afterward.

When a hysterectomy makes sense

Each year in the US, about half a million hysterectomies are performed, mostly to stop problematic periods. With a hysterectomy, we remove the uterus, and sometimes other organs such as your fallopian tubes and ovaries.

A hysterectomy is a big step, and we consider it when we feel an endometrial ablation won’t be enough to improve your symptoms.

For example, if your painful and heavy periods stem from adenomyosis, a condition in which endometrial tissue grows into the muscular walls of your uterus, a hysterectomy is the better option. This is because an endometrial ablation wouldn’t reach these growths in the walls.

Or, if your symptoms are due to a reproductive cancer, then removal of the affected organs makes good sense.

Rest assured, if you opt for a hysterectomy, Dr. Otero uses the most minimally invasive techniques available to reduce risks and improve recovery.

Making the right choice for you

Ultimately, choosing between a hysterectomy and an endometrial ablation is complex and best done together, as each patient has different health concerns and goals.

To determine which approach is best for relieving heavy and painful periods, we invite you to contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to schedule a consultation.

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