Mrs. Lin had been suffering for years from excessive menstrual bleeding, with each period lasting for about 10 days. As a result, she suffered from both anemia and heart-related problems. Having received internal medical treatments that repeatedly failed to solve her problems, doctors finally suggested she have a hysterectomy.
In Taiwan, obstetricians and gynecologists say somewhere between 8,000 and 16,000 women every year share similar excessive menstrual bleeding problems, suffering from a variety of other symptoms such as weak limbs and dizziness.
But doctors at the Taiwan Association of the OBS/GYN Endoscopists (
The procedure involves destroying all or most of the tissue that is responsible for menstrual bleeding by using a heated saline solution to destroy the endometrial lining of the uterus, according to Lee Chyi-long (
By using computerized devices to control the procedure, the treatment takes about 17 minutes, and patients can go home the same day, according to Lee.
The tissue can be partially or completely destroyed to completely stop patients' menses that had caused serious blood deficiency, or simply reduce excessive menstrual bleeding, Yen Chih-feng (顏志峰), secretary-general of the association said.
Lee also pointed out that such a device is suitable for patients who are not in a condition to have a hysterectomy or who do not want to have one.
"Such procedures have been conducted in other countries for more than three years, with more than 700 cases being performed in the United States," said Wang Kung-liang (王功亮), a doctor at Mackay Memorial Hospital (馬偕紀念醫院) in Taipei. According to medical reports published overseas, 77 percent of patients who have had the procedure stopped their menstrual bleeding within the first six months. In addition, 88 percent of patients maintained the same physical condition 18 months after having the procedure done, Wang said.
Since the introduction of the procedure to Taiwan in July, doctors have preformed the procedure on 16 women. Although results look promising so far, doctors urge that patients get sound medical advice before having the procedure performed on them. Certain problems remain.
Women should not have such a procedure if they want to become pregnant in the future, according to medical opinion. While endometrial ablation does not prevent women from getting pregnant, such pregnancies after the procedure would be of high risk for both mother and fetus, according to medical opinion.
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