What are the treatments for endometriosis using combined Chinese and Western medicine?

Endometriosis is extremely harmful and can even cause infertility in severe cases, so it must be treated actively. From a clinical perspective, the combination of Chinese and Western medicine has good results. Western medicine methods include expectant management, surgical treatment, and drug treatment, while Chinese medicine requires soothing the liver and regulating qi, clearing heat and cooling blood, warming the meridians and dispersing cold, etc.

(1) Expectant treatment: Expectant treatment can be used for early cases, but endometriosis is a progressive disease. If symptoms and signs worsen, active treatment should be used instead.

(2) Surgical treatment: Currently, surgical treatment is divided into conservative (preserving fertility), semi-radical (removal of the uterus and preservation of ovarian function) and radical surgery (removal of the uterus, ovaries and found lesions), but all have a certain chance of recurrence, especially conservative and semi-radical surgery.

(3) Drug treatment: To achieve the purpose of ovarian suppression, or "pseudo-pregnancy" or "pseudo-menopause". Commonly used drugs today are progesterone, danazol, nemetol and gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa).

Traditional Chinese medicine is a holistic, macroscopic and proactive approach to the treatment of endometriosis. It has long-term effects and no obvious toxic side effects. It has significant effects on mild patients and can improve symptoms and relieve pain for moderate and severe patients. The main symptom of this disease is blood stasis, which runs through the entire course of the disease. In the early stage, it is mainly characterized by excess syndrome. As the disease lasts for a long time, it damages the body's health, and the excess leads to deficiency, resulting in mixed syndrome of deficiency and excess. Pure deficiency syndrome is extremely rare. In view of the pathological characteristics of local blood stasis, the treatment method emphasizes promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, softening and dispersing nodules, and inhibiting the growth of ectopic endometrial tissue. Clinically, according to the characteristics of dysmenorrhea, menstrual conditions, duration of the disease and concurrent symptoms, it is distinguished whether it is in the qi or blood, whether it is cold or hot, kidney deficiency, and liver depression, and systemic syndrome differentiation and treatment are carried out, respectively using methods such as soothing the liver and regulating qi, clearing heat and cooling blood, warming the meridians and dispersing cold, tonifying the kidney and replenishing qi, and resolving phlegm and softening nodules, so as to achieve the purpose of regulating the body's immune function, regulating endocrine, controlling inflammation, and improving blood rheology. In terms of treatment, it is mainly based on syndrome differentiation and treatment supplemented by traditional Chinese medicine. In terms of treatment course, generally three months is a treatment process. It is worth emphasizing that endometriosis is a difficult disease to treat clinically. Regardless of whether it is treated with traditional Chinese medicine alone or western medicine alone, the long-term efficacy is not very satisfactory. The organic combination of Chinese and Western medicine can give full play to their respective advantages, learn from each other's strengths and make up for each other's weaknesses, which can improve the efficacy.