Other Endometriosis FAQs

Many women with fertility problems have endometriosis. But exactly how endometriosis causes infertility is not clear. Some evidence suggests that infertility is related to the extent of the endometriosis patches, because the patches can distort the pelvic anatomy. This would make it difficult for sperm to travel to the ovary or a fertilized egg to travel to the uterus.¹ Other evidence suggests that the inflammation in the abdomen may disrupt ovulation or fertilization, or that the endometrium may not develop properly, hampering the attachment of the embryo to the uterus.

There are treatments for endometriosis-related infertility that may help women with endometriosis get pregnant.

Endometriosis and endometrial cancer are not the same. The word “endometrium” describes the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus. Endometrial cancer is a type of cancer that affects the lining of the inside of the uterus. Endometriosis itself is not a form of cancer.

There is a slight increase in the risk of ovarian cancer among women with endometriosis, particularly among women who were diagnosed with the condition at an early age. However, it is unclear whether endometriosis causes ovarian cancer or if the two conditions share risk factors or disease mechanisms that make them more likely to occur together.

Some studies have found small links to other types of cancer, but the links are much less clear.

For some women diagnosed with endometriosis, endometriosis patches go away on their own.

Also, after menopause, symptoms of endometriosis typically lessen because there is a drop in the natural hormones and the growths gradually shrink. However, this is not true for all women. If a woman takes hormones for menopausal symptoms, both her pain symptoms and the growths may return.

Women with endometriosis who are experiencing symptoms, especially after menopause, should talk with their healthcare providers about treatment options.

The key thing to remember here is that endometriosis is a progressive condition, and it will continue to grow and may cause progressive symptoms. So for some patients, that means that initially the pain was only with the menstrual cycle. But over time with that progression of disease, the pain can start to occur outside of the cycle, so throughout different times of the month, with urination, with bowel movements, with intercourse. So that can prompt us to need to intervene and do treatment if we hadn’t done anything previously. But that being said, even though we know endometriosis is progressive, for some patients, it doesn’t ever progress to the point that we would need to do any treatment because it’s more of a quality of life issue. And if it’s not impacting the quality of life, we don’t really need to do anything.

Unfortunately, most of the time, no. The vast majority of endometriosis is superficial endometriosis, meaning that it’s almost like paint spackling on a wall, that we can’t see it unless we actually go in and take a look surgically. The exception to that is if there’s endometriosis actually growing into organs in the pelvis or the abdomen like the bowel or the bladder. That’s called deep-infiltrating endometriosis. In those scenarios, we can frequently see that disease either on ultrasound or on MRI.

That’s a really great question. So endometriosis is something that can be a little bit elusive, but we can suspect it based on symptoms that you might be experiencing. If you’re having pain with your periods, pain in your pelvis in general pain with intercourse, urination, bowel movements, all of that may point us to a suspicion of endometriosis. But unfortunately, the only way to say 100% If you do or do not have endometriosis is to do surgery. Because during surgery we can remove tissue, look at it underneath the microscope, and definitively be able to say whether you do or do not have endometriosis.