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Mary's Story: Excision Procedure Ends Years of Endometriosis Pain and Infertility
Restore Center For Endometriosis Apr 23, 2024 3:02:30 PM

From the time she was a teen, Mary struggled with monthly pelvic pain. As an adult, she was unable to get pregnant. Surgical ablation failed to treat Mary’s endometriosis. But SLUCare OB/GYN Dr. Patrick Yeung, Jr. treats endometriosis using laser excision, an alternative that changed Mary’s life forever.
Transcript:
Mary:
Dr Yeung:
So endometriosis is where the cells which line the uterus in her shed during the period are found outside the uterus implanted on the peritoneum. I call that the wall paper the pelvis and that causes two main things pain and can affect fertility.
Now most people treat it by just burning it for lack of a
better word they're trying to destroy the implants with energy the problem with that approach is it can be widespread it can go deeper so you might just be trying the tip of the iceberg and not get down to the bottom of the lesion or it can be on or near a vital organ.
So we cut it out if it's a large patch we cut around it if it goes deeper we cut under it under the roots so to speak to get the whole thing out down to normal healthy tissue.
So Mary had had a couple of previous surgeries, by ablation but I think there was a recognition that there was endometriosis that they couldn't get to, that they couldn't they they didn't feel comfortable treating by
ablation. She still had persistent pain even after the surgeries, and she was trying to get pregnant and could not get pregnant.
Mary:
we decided as a couple that I would go out birth control
and we'll see what happens, and nothing happened... and so it was really disheartening... just month after month
of it of just not being successful was very difficult.
When dr. young did the surgery I went in and I was out just over an hour later.
Dr. Yeung:
We try and do the surgery minimally invasive so it's laparoscopic or keyhole surgery. You got a hole in the belly button that we tried to bury or hide in the belly button and then two down low in the bikini line so that there are no visible incisions in the mid abdomen once
they're all healed up.
I use a non-contact laser as my cutting tool of choice to cut it out. So that is very precise it cuts one layer at a time I don't have to touch the tissue, so there's not that danger of pushing too hard but that allows me to scallop off,endometriosis off, even things like vital organs.
Mary:
They made sure that all the organs were there and working properly and he sent me home, and said after my follow-up appointment that I could start trying to conceive.
I guess about six weeks after the surgery, and sure enough before we even started really trying we've discovered we were already pregnant so went through the whole nine months pregnancy and now we have a baby girl!
Dr. Yeung:
I really believe that endometriosis is under-diagnosed and under-treated it's thought to be in one in ten woman and can take up to 12 years to diagnose. To take care of a patient who has had years of pain, poor quality of life, and do a procedure or do a surgery that can help them feel better have a better quality of life better relationships be able to get pregnant...
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