Endometrial Ablation Facts:

It is estimated that as many as 10 million pre-menopausal women between the ages of 35 and 55 suffer from menorrhagia or abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB). Excessive bleeding accounts for 33% of referrals to gynecologic practice, with an estimated prevalence of 22% among otherwise healthy women. Menorrhagia is incapacitating, costly to treat, and accounts for more than one-third of the hysterectomies performed annually in the United States. Approximately 50% of all cases of abnormal uterine bleeding are caused by dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB). DUB is a diagnosis of exclusion that is made only after pregnancy, iatrogenic causes, systemic conditions, and obvious genital tract pathology have been ruled out as an etiology. Traditional treatment for DUB includes hormone replacement therapy, D&C, and hysterectomy. If the patient and her physician feel that neither medical nor surgical therapy is appropriate, endometrial ablation may be a desirable option. Many clinical trials have shown that endometrial ablation allows for a lower morbidity that mortality rate and significantly lower procedure cost; as a result, gynecologists have adopted newer endometrial ablation techniques that provide an opportunity to perform these procedures quickly and safely within their own office settings.

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