What is Uterine Ablation or Endometrial Ablation?
If the medical and hormonal therapies cannot control this benign condition (bleeding), then only this type of treatment is considered. It should not be performed if a woman is suffering from genital tract infections. This is an alternative procedure for hysterectomy. After this surgery, women will have been normal to light menstrual bleeding or sometimes no bleeding at all. However, endometrium has regenerative properties. So heavy bleeding may repeat in between, in such cases further surgery is needed.Endometrial ablation or Uterine Ablation is a type of treatment for abnormal uterine bleeding. It is only done in a woman who is non-pregnant and who does not want to be pregnant further. In simple words, it is a surgical destruction of the endometrium (lining cells of uterus).
In the uterus there won’t be any place for growing fetus to attach after this surgery. However, this procedure cannot control the birth. So some other birth-control method to be used in order to avoid pregnancy, otherwise placenta accreta may occur, which is very problematic.
There are different methods to perform uterine ablation listed below:
- Hydro thermal ablation
- Laser
- Balloon
- Microwave
- roller ball
- Cryoablation
- NovaSure
- Cavaterm, etc.
This procedure may take about 45 minutes to complete after giving local or spinal anesthesia. It is mostly painless or less pain, so you can immediately go home with in few hours of surgery. Nevertheless, Recovery time may vary. There will be watery discharge or bleeding from the vagina, which is very normal after the surgery for several weeks.
What are the risks associated with this type of surgery?
This procedure sometimes may show serious complications like:
- Uterus perforation
- Burns outside the endometrial lining
- Post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome
- Pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs)
- Bowel Burn
- Damage to the opening of the uterus
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