Ask an Endo Surgeon: What Is Recovery Like After Excision Surgery? Dr. Rachael Haverland

Dr. Haverland of Pelvic Rehabilitation Medicine discusses what recovery is like after endometriosis excision surgery.

Dr. Rachael Haverland, MD, MS, FACOG is passionate about helping women feel their best by resolving their infertility and pelvic pain through endometriosis excision surgery. Possessing an extensive educational background—which includes a prominent fellowship at the Mayo Clinic among other subspecialty training tenures—Dr. Haverland is uniquely qualified to provide care in her areas of focus: pelvic pain, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and pelvic floor dysfunction.

At Pelvic Rehabilitation Medicine, our pelvic pain specialists provide a functional, rehab approach to pelvic pain. When you visit one of our offices, you spend an hour with your doctor reviewing in detail your medical history and symptoms. Then, we perform an internal exam (no speculum) to evaluate your nerves and muscles. Together, we'll discuss an individual treatment plan that gets to the root cause of your pain and helps you to feel better. The best part: you can begin treatment the same day!

At PRM, our mission is to decrease the time patients are suffering from pelvic pain symptoms.


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Hello, Doctor Rachael Haverland here. I'm an endometriosis excision surgeon in Dallas and I'm answering some questions for you today and one of the questions is "What is recovery like after endometriosis excision surgeries?"

So, this also varies from person to person based on the location of the disease, the amount of the disease. But I will say using a minimally invasive approach like we do, using the Da Vinci robot, most of our patients do really well. So, I usually warn that the first 48 hours is the hardest. So, that's when your muscles are most sore, when the inflammation is at the height, and that's when you will likely have the most discomfort. But I want my patients walking the same day, even if it's just walking to the bathroom, to the kitchen, walking around just a little bit. But every day, you should start increasing your activity just a little bit more.

Now you're not running marathons, but I want you to walk around the house as this helps reduce the risk of blood clots but also helps to move air through your lungs to help decrease risk of pneumonias, and gets your muscles a little bit more loose. You'll notice that in the morning the first time you get up, your muscles are really tight. That's a harder time to engage your core, but as the day progresses, you'll start to feel a little bit better, you'll be able to stand up a little bit more upright.

[r.d.]

When do you usually allow patients to return to hard exercise (e.g. water polo practice/training for a half marathon)?