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The Most Unwelcome House Guest: Endometriomas

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When you can’t find your keys, what do you do? Most of us go to the “hot” spots and start searching. Hot spots are those places that you usually, on most days, drop your keys: on the kitchen counter, in the hallway, hanging on a hook in the garage. By hitting those high-traffic key spots, we are pretty likely to find a match.

When looking for evidence of endometriosis, we go to those hot spots, and the ovaries are the hottest of the hot spots. Endometriosis that implants on the ovaries and forms a cyst is called an endometrioma. News flash: endometriomas and the ovaries are not friends; in fact, they are not even frenemies. They are unwelcome guests that can make the ovaries incredibly unhappy. And here’s why.

Intruders are not fun in anyone’s house. This is particularly true in the ovaries that are already dealing with a limited supply of goods (a.k.a. eggs). Endometriosis on the ovaries can range from mild (a few spots) to major (a whopping 10cm, plus a cyst). Usually, the bigger the cyst, the bigger the problem. And although this may be hard or disturbing to picture, what’s inside the cyst bears a close resemblance to chocolate. While we hope that didn’t destroy your love of everything Hershey’s, Nestle, or Godiva, that is what the brown fluid that leaks out of the cyst looks like.

And while it may look like chocolate, it’s more of an inflammatory soup; factors and mediators lurking in this fluid are not pleasant. They’re irritants. They can damage the ovary and eat away at your egg supply—as well as your quality of life. It is for this reason and others that women with endometriosis often experience infertility.

The walls of endometriomas were not built in a day. They are usually quite tough and scarred. In many cases, the ovary-plus-cyst complex is stuck like glue to surrounding abdominal organs (intestines, uterus, etc.). This can make taking them out pretty challenging. Fortunately, surgeons that specialize in endometriosis surgery have a lot of weapons in their armamentarium.

You want to make sure the good guys are fighting for you, and for this reason, make sure you vet your endo surgeon well. Unlike those keys that you couldn’t find, you can’t just get a new ovary copied. If you lose it, it is forever lost. For this reason, you want to make sure whomever you are trusting to “hold them” knows what they are doing.

The good news about endometriomas is that the hot/cold/found-it game is pretty easy. An ultrasound is pretty spot on in identifying what is likely an endometrioma and what is not. On ultrasounds, the cyst/mass will look greyish/white and solid, and it usually has a lot of blood flow. If your doctor is still on the fence about what is plaguing your ovary or needs more information before surgery, an MRI is usually their go to. With these tools in our pocket, we can decide if surgery is needed, what the best approach for surgery is, and how major the surgery will be. It is important to take good before pictures (say cheese!) prior to surgery so that you have a good idea about what the after should look like.

Unfortunately, the recurrence rate of endometriomas is pretty high, especially when the surgeon does not remove the cyst wall in its entirety. Simply draining the cyst doesn’t do all that much for you or for your chances of being cured.

Word of advice…make sure to ASK your surgeon how he or she plans to remove the endo before signing that consent form. The reason for the high recurrence rate of all things endo is that estrogen is fueling its fire. If estrogen is around, endo will grow—sort of like, if you build it they will come. It is for this reason that, for women who do not have babies on the brain (because they are not ready or they are done), we recommend shutting the reproductive system down (pills, Lupron etc.) after undergoing surgery.

Cold, hot, hotter, hottest—you found it! Endometriomas are often a pretty good giveaway for underlying endometriosis. They have no game face, and when present, you can pretty easily guess what’s causing those unpleasant symptoms. While they may not need to be treated unless causing pain or contributing to infertility, they do shed some major light on what may be hiding in the dark in your pelvis. It may be the key to what you experience in the future—make sure you know where you put it!

A Is for Adenomyosis

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Of all the words, terms, and phrases you have heard us utter, adenomyosis may sound the most foreign—and if you think it’s hard to say, try spelling it! It’s likely that, unless you have it or know someone who has it, you will close the chapter (or computer) on this piece pretty quickly. But Bear with us for a minute; push past the A to C of what this Diagnosis is really all about and why it’s something worth learning about.

In many ways, adenomyosis is sort of an Enigma. If you don’t look for it, you won’t Find it. And Getting the diagnosis right can be Hard. Unless you have surgery or an Individual who is really skilled at his or her Job looking at your ultrasound or MRI, you may not Know that you are suffering from adenomyosis. It can often masquerade itself as a Leiomyoma (medical term for fibroids). Although adenomyosis also forms Masses in the uterus, they are no fibroids.

In many ways, adenomyosis is like the first cousin of endometriosis. Both pathologies arise from endometrial tissue that has gotten lost (a.k.a. made its way out of the uterus) and is Not sure how to get back—uh Oh. While in endometriosis this lost uterine tissue can go pretty far (think lungs and even skin), in the case of adenomyosis, the endometrial tissue Prefers to stay much closer to home. In adeno (the medical nickname for adenomyosis), the tissue inside the uterus has taken up residence within the muscle of the uterus. So although that trip may be small in distance, the impact of this unwanted visitor can be big.

And unlike those distant cousins that you never knew you had, adenomyosis is not so unknown or removed. In fact, nearly 10% of all women suffer from adenomyosis. The number is much higher in women with infertility. And while many might not know they have it, they will be aware of the heavy bleeding, the dysmenorrhea, the abdominal pressure/bloating, and the infertility that often accompanies adenomyosis. The symptoms can be pretty severe and often send women (usually in their 30s and 40s) to the GYN in a Quandary (a.k.a. not the best of physical and mental states…we needed a Q!).

Historically, the only way to diagnose adeno was in the operating Room with a piece of tissue that was sent off to our pathology friends. Oftentimes, women were incorrectly diagnosed with fibroids (for years), and until the uterus came out Surgically, they didn’t really know what was causing their unpleasant symptoms. Nowadays, due to huge improvements in our imaging Techniques (cue Ultrasound and MRI), we can see adeno before women walk into the operating room.

Although there is much crossover between the treatments for fibroids and adeno, surgery for the latter can be much less successful and much riskier. The division between normal healthy uterine muscle tissue and adenomyotic tissue can be harder to find. With fibroids, the distinction between the two is pretty clear. Thus, there can be a loss of healthy tissue and, in some cases, loss of the uterus.

The treatment for adenomyosis, like its cousins the fibroid and endometriosis, Varies based on the severity of a woman’s symptoms as well as where a woman is in her fertility plans. For Women who have said sayonara to their baby-making days, a hysterectomy is usually their best bet. Goodbye, uterus, means goodbye, symptoms. For women who are not ready to make their uterus their eX, hormonal treatments (oral contraceptive pills, IUDs, aromatase inhibitors, and Lupron are also pretty good at getting you back to a Zen state. Whatever path You choose, it’s super important to go hand in hand with a physician who can recite the ABCs of adeno as he or she catches some Zzzzs (that is, in his or her sleep). Trust us. This is a song that you don’t want to “sing” alone.