"I've taken my life back. Now I can start being twenty-three again." Alessia lives with endometriosis. In a letter addressed to the Public Relations Office of the Cremona Asst, she thanks the specialists who took care of her, finding a solution to her pain. Thanks to an experimental therapy proposed by the Neurosurgery of Cremona, she was able to 'turn off' the pain and resume her daily life. On the occasion of World Endometriosis Day, which is celebrated on March 28, 2024, Alessia decided to share her experience.
"Endometriosis put my will to live on hold - she says - I was overwhelmed by a pain that I couldn't identify. It came from inside, it attacked my bowels, my abdomen and progressively my back and right leg. I couldn't to walk or sit: I stopped doing everything I did before, from daily activities to social life. The most difficult thing was explaining it to others, feeling understood: how can you explain something that can't be seen?".
In July 2021 the diagnosis arrived: endometriosis. Alessia turns to a specialized center for the disease, where she initially tries pharmacological therapy and then surgery. "I hoped I would feel better but that wasn't the case, the pain got worse." Two more are added to the first diagnosis: vulvodynia and pudendal neuropathy, which are followed by other therapies but without good results. Endometriosis is a chronic and silent pathology, explains Aldo Riccardi, director of the Maternal and Child Department of Cremona: "Despite being of a gynecological nature, it can affect multiple organs and systems, causing widespread pain that accompanies the woman at all times. We can consider it a social disease, because it also affects interpersonal relationships". In Cremona, the diagnostic process starts from an accurate investigation to identify the nature and extent of the symptoms. Diagnostic tests can include nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, and in addition to pharmacological therapy, surgery can be a therapeutic option, although sometimes risky and non-resolving, recommended only when endometriosis is extremely disabling. "When you think that everything is useless, something revolutionary arrives - continues Alessia - Spinal cord neurostimulation was my revolution".
At the Asst of Cremona, antalgic neuromodulation is already in use to treat nervous or spinal pathologies. As Antonio Fioravanti, director of Neurosurgery and the Neurosciences department, explains, it is a treatment technique that uses radiofrequency on the nervous system to improve painful symptoms. From a practical point of view, it involves installing a neurostimulator at the dorsal epidural level, which uses electrical or magnetic impulses to 'deceive' the neuropathic pain pathways, preserving the other sensitivities. For the first time, this therapeutic method has been applied to treat endometriosis pain. After an initial trial phase to evaluate functioning and modulation, the intervention was planned to install the neurostimulator, which today accompanies Alessia in resuming daily activities. The results are very encouraging, doctors say. Alessia is much better and has learned to manage the device independently, which can be recharged and adjusted as needed.
"Three months after the operation - explains Alessia - I am able to do things that before were only a memory, such as going to university, walking or going to a disco with my friends. My heart is full of joy, even if after so much suffering the fear that all this could start again."
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