Safe periods with secure methods

Women can now look forward to a cost-effective and well-validated technique for treating menorrhagia

by Manika Gupta

MAKE the operation suit the patient, rather than the patient suit the operation” is what Dr Charles Mayo, a famous surgeon from the UK has to say. Here is some good news for women struggling to fight the excessive bleeding problem. There is a new treatment now called the Microwave Endometrial Ablation (MEA) technique.

Menorrhagia or heavy period problem is a common condition and about one in every five women aged between 35 and 49 suffers from it.

While drug therapy is typically the first line of treatment, surgery follows if medicine does not work. A new breakthrough that promises to cure the problem is MEA. Mr Peter O’ Donovan from the UK, who was in Delhi last week to talk about the treatment and actually perform operations on women suffering from this disease free of cost, calls it a “safe and revolutionary technique for treating menorrhagia”. The MEA technique or using microwave energy to cause rapid but shallow heating of the endometrium is a process of destroying the endometrium.

The type of microwave has been specially selected so that the depth of tissue destruction cannot exceed 6mm. The microwaves are delivered into the uterus though an applicator that is gently inserted into the cervix.

“Approximately 4,000 cases all over the world have been treated by this technique and they have been completely cured,” says Dr Donovan. According to him, this technique has several advantages when compared with the traditional methods of treating the excessive bleeding problem.

To begin with 95 per cent women are suitable for this treatment. The conventional treatments are not suitable for women with fibroids, but MEA is. The time taken for this treatment is much less and the procedure more acceptable.

MEA is a fast process and takes less than three minutes. Says Dr Donovan, “This is the best thing that could happen to a woman.” MEA is considered to be a safe, rapid and a versatile technique. In other words it is an effective, safe, cost-effective, OPD-based, well-validated and well-tolerated technique.
The best thing is the fast recovery time. Unlike other conventional surgeries for the disease where one is bed-ridden for weeks together, MEA gives one the advantage of recovery in five days.

Dr Sheila Mehra, a leading gynecologists agrees: “It is a method which requires little learning curve, and because it is computerised nothing is left to chance.”