Hello everyone, I'm Prof. Dr. Suat DOĞANCI. I am a specialist in cardiovascular surgery.
Pelvic Venous disease, also known as the hidden disease of women in particular, is a vascular disease of the ovaries that occurs most often as a result of visible veins in the veins we call the internal iliac vein, which collects the blood of our organs such as the uterus, ovaries, and bladder inside the abdomen. Apart from this, especially among the public, there is a situation called vein-to-vein overlap. This situation may be in our stomach. It can occur after pressure is exerted on the veins by various arteries located in our abdomen.
The most important symptoms of pelvic disease are a dull and uncomfortable feeling of pain that settles in the groin, which we call chronic pelvic pain, and creates constant discomfort that persists for long periods, such as three to six months, regardless of menstrual periods. In addition, the pain that occurs especially after sexual intercourse manifests itself in the form of varicose veins formed in the genital areas, leg varicose veins that differ in distribution from normal varicose veins formed on the legs, and side pains that manifest themselves on the side of the torso.
Complications of pelvic disease: especially in people who have had the issue for a long time, very severe pain occurs when walking, standing for a long time, sitting, and having bowel movements. These pains can cause patients to be unable to maintain their daily lives. In more extreme forms of this, these people also start to move away from sexuality because patients feel very severe pain, especially after sexual intercourse. It can lead to the breakdown of family unity and the emergence of domestic unhappiness. In this case, it can cause serious problems for our patients both socially and psychologically.
Treatment of pelvic disease begins with identifying the causative condition. If it is caused by an insufficiency in the ovarian veins or in the veins that collect the blood of the uterus, ovaries, and intra-abdominal organs, which we call the internal iliac vein, the treatment is done by filling them with various plugs called metallic or liquid embolizing agents and eliminating the insufficiency. But in patients with pressure of the iliac vessels or the left renal vein, which we call May-Thurner syndrome or Nut-Cracker syndrome, such as the pressure exerted by the vessels on each other, these areas need to be stented in order to treat the disease. If the ovarian vessels dialate due to blockage of these vessels in patients with chronic Deep Vein Thrombosis, another patient group, this time the iliac vessels that are blocked, rather than treating the ovaries, can be opened with stents again to treat patients. If varicose veins in the genital areas are involved in the work, treatments can be performed in the form of drying the genital varicose veins by injecting drugs into them using methods called liquid or foam sclerotherapy.
Pelvic disease is a fairly common disease. It is known as the secret disease of women. The reason, is that although these patients went to doctors from different branches, they could not get a diagnosis. In fact, it has a frequency that can be seen between 2% and 24% in women between the ages of 18 to 50. In especially what we call chronic pelvic disease, there is this disease under about 30% of our patients who suffer from pain in the groin areas independent of long menstrual periods of 3 to 6 months. Especially in women who have given birth two or more times, the incidence of the disease gradually increases. It becomes visible in about one in three women. Again, apart from these, there are women who have never given birth but have pelvic disease. In general, the underlying factors are; long-term breathing yoga, activities that require holding your breath and pushing for a long time, patients who suffer from constipation for a long time, and patients that lift weights. These ovarian veins can cause dilation of the vessels, causing the appearance of the disease.
Even one day after the treatment of our patients, their complaints decrease rapidly. After the treatments, especially in the first week, we usually check whether there is a problem related to the procedure and whether our patient's complaints have regressed. Then, in the first month, third month, and sixth month, we call our patients for a check-up and review the status of their complaints. Here, our typical control method is a physical examination and ultrasonography. Patients can also be checked with methods such as tomography and MRI if needed. We wish everyone a happy and healthy day.