Medical management
Hormonal treatments and pain management can control symptoms for many women, and are often the right first step or a useful complement to surgery.
Endometriosis
Specialist endometriosis care in Manchester
Endometriosis affects around one in ten women, yet the average wait for a diagnosis is close to nine years. It does not have to be that way. Here is what the condition is, how it is diagnosed, and how it can be treated.
What is endometriosis?
Endometriosis is a long-term condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other parts of the body — most often around the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the pelvis, and sometimes on the bowel, bladder or ureters. Each month this tissue responds to hormones as if it were inside the womb, but it has no way to leave the body. Over time that can cause inflammation, scarring and adhesions.
It is one of the most common causes of pelvic pain in younger women, and its effects reach well beyond period pain — touching fertility, work, relationships and mental health.
Symptoms to take seriously
- Painful, heavy or irregular periods that disrupt daily life
- Chronic pelvic pain, including between periods
- Pain during or after sex (dyspareunia)
- Pain when passing urine or opening your bowels, especially around your period
- Fatigue, bloating and digestive symptoms that flare cyclically
- Difficulty getting pregnant
Symptoms vary enormously from one woman to the next, which is part of why the condition is so often missed. If pain is affecting how you live, that is reason enough to seek a specialist opinion.
How endometriosis is diagnosed
Diagnosis begins with genuinely listening to your history, followed by examination and specialist imaging such as a detailed pelvic ultrasound. Where a clear answer is needed, a diagnostic laparoscopy — keyhole surgery to look directly inside the pelvis — remains the most reliable way to confirm endometriosis, map its extent, and often treat it in the same procedure.
A centre, not a single clinic
Why a specialist centre matters for complex disease
When endometriosis is deep or infiltrating — growing into the bowel, bladder or ureters — surgery becomes complex and should only be undertaken by an accredited team. At the BSGE-accredited Stockport Endometriosis Centre I operate alongside colorectal and urological surgeons, with specialist nurses, radiologists and pain specialists as part of the same pathway.
- Accredited surgeons working to recognised national standards.
- One coordinated plan across every specialty your case needs.
- Complex excision surgery handled safely in a single setting.
- Support before and after from specialist endometriosis nurses.
Treatment options
How endometriosis can be treated
There is no single right answer. The plan depends on your symptoms, the extent of the disease, your age and whether you hope to conceive.
Laparoscopic excision
Keyhole surgery to remove (excise) endometriosis and divide adhesions — the approach most likely to give lasting relief, with a short recovery.
Robotic (da Vinci) surgery
For the most complex disease, robotic assistance adds precision and control in tight anatomical spaces, helping protect surrounding organs.
Adenomyosis & related conditions
Endometriosis often sits alongside other conditions I treat, including adenomyosis (where similar tissue grows within the muscle of the womb wall), fibroids, and ovarian cysts such as endometriomas. Assessing these together, rather than one at a time, usually leads to a clearer diagnosis and a better plan.
Whatever the outcome of your investigations, you will leave with an honest explanation and a route forward.
Endometriosis
Stop waiting for answers
If pain is shaping your life, a specialist assessment is the fastest way to understand what is happening and what can be done about it.