Endometritis symptoms are a sign of an infection in the lining of your uterus. This inflammation is caused by an infection with certain bacteria, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, or tuberculosis. Symptoms include fever, malaise, pelvic pain, and distended abdomen.
If you have this condition, your doctor may prescribe medication to help you treat it. Antibiotics are the most common medications used to fight or prevent an infection with bacteria that cause endometritis.
Your doctor will also recommend tests to find out more about your condition. These tests may include a pap smear, blood test, or a urine sample to find out more about your body’s bacterial levels.
In some cases, your doctor may need to perform an abdominal or vaginal biopsy to take a sample of the affected area for examination. These tests can be helpful in determining the type of bacteria that is causing the infection and how severe it is.
You should seek treatment for endometritis as soon as you start having any of these symptoms. If left untreated, this condition can lead to infertility and other complications with your reproductive organs.
The first thing your health care provider will do is examine you. They will look for tenderness in your cervix and uterus and will hear bowel sounds. They will also ask if you have cervical discharge, which is often a sign of an infection.
Your health care provider will use a laparoscope (a tube that is inserted into your belly) to check for signs of endometritis, such as a thick or abnormally swollen lining. They can also take a sample of the vaginal fluid and look at it under a microscope.
Sometimes a doctor will perform an ultrasound to view your lining. This can be helpful in deciding whether you have endometritis, but it is not always accurate for a diagnosis.
Another exam is to measure your white blood cell count (WBC) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). These numbers are important for diagnosing an infection. If your WBC and ESR are high, you have a severe infection that needs to be treated as quickly as possible.
Other tests that your doctor may do to check for endometritis include a cytology test, which is a special type of microscope that can see the cells of your cervix. Your doctor can also get a sample of your uterine tissue and culture it for infection.
If you have a complicated case of endometritis, you may need surgery to remove the affected tissue. This is called a colposcopy and will be done by a gynecologist.
Your doctor can also use a needle to drain an abscess or pus in your uterus. You may need to stay in a hospital for a few days after these procedures to ensure that your infection has been successfully treated.
In some cases, chronic endometritis can affect your fertility by stopping the fertilized egg from implanting in your uterus. Fortunately, studies have shown that antibiotic treatment can improve your chances of getting pregnant by increasing the number of successful in vitro fertilization cycles.
