225: Why excision surgery hurts women

Sunday, November 15, 2026
9:30 am - 10:45 am

Room: BALLRM-ABC

Chairs: Kelly Wright

Faculty:

Description: I am an excision surgeon, and excision surgery hurts women. This tongue-in-check MEDTalk explores the concept of hingeing on a treatment leading to lack of scientific progress in understanding and treating a disease. The focus on excision surgery for the past three decades has been important in teaching patients how to advocate for themselves and find a capable physician who validates their disease and suffering. However, it has hindered scientific progress through focusing on endometriosis as a single end-organ disease rather than allowing a mindset shift into endometriosis as a systemic inflammatory disease. We have seen progress in other comparative fields such as inflammatory bowel disease, inflammatory skin diseases, and even ovarian cancer. Comparing ourselves to physicians who treat these diseases, we could not imagine a colorectal surgeon who cuts out small intestine every time there's a Crohns flare. Similarly, the focus on excision surgery has led to overuse and potential abuse of this technique, seen in the proliferation of cash pay surgeons and marketing on social media. This MEDTalk challenges the paradigm of our current treatment standards and offers hope for the future with an introduction to the current targets and treatments being studied right now - monoclonal antibodies, targeted receptor inhibitors, and even simple medications already available on the market. Let's reframe the discussion to think about what a career treating endometriosis as a chronic systemic inflammatory disease would look like, as perhaps we'll find great satisfaction in treating patients well over treating them with repeated surgeries.

Objective #1: Describe the concept of hingeing in medicine and how this prevents scientific progress
Objective #2: Understand the current cutting edge research in the pathophysiology of endometriosis
Objective #3: Consider running trials of different medications to treat endometriosis
Medtalk Presenter: Kelly Wright

Learning Objectives: At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:

1. Describe the concept of hingeing in medicine and how this prevents scientific progress
2. Understand the current cutting edge research in the pathophysiology of endometriosis
3. Consider running trials of different medications to treat endometriosis