QC: Finding Your Endometriosis Surgeon

Send us a text with a question or thought on this episode ( We cannot replay from this link)

Dr. Melissa McHale, a gynecologic surgeon specializing in minimally invasive endometriosis surgery, shares expert guidance on finding qualified surgeons for endometriosis treatment. She provides practical strategies for evaluating surgeon credentials, training backgrounds, and professional connections to ensure patients receive care from true specialists capable of performing complete excision surgery.

• Research where potential surgeons received their training and who specifically taught them endometriosis surgery techniques
• Ask direct questions about when endometriosis became their focus and how they developed their surgical skills
• Consider that most fellowship-trained gynecologists in the US aren't adequately trained in complete endometriosis excision
• Evaluate the surgeon's professional network—those who regularly associate with other endometriosis specialists likely stay current with best practices
• Look at both patient reviews and professional reputation among other physicians
• If you wouldn't trust their mentor to operate on you, question whether you should trust them

Have questions about finding the right endometriosis specialist? Send them in through the link in the episode description, email [e-mail], or visit the endobattery.com contact page.

Support the show

Website endobattery.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Life moves fast and so should the answers to your
biggest questions.
Welcome to EndoBattery's QuickConnect, your direct line to
expert insights Short, powerfuland right to the point.
You send in the questions, Ibring in the experts and in just
five minutes you get theknowledge you need.
No long episodes, no extra timeneeded, and just remember

(00:21):
expert opinions shared here arefor general information and not
for personalized medical advice.
Always consult your providerfor your case-specific guidance.
Got a question?
Send it in and let's quicklyget you the answers.
I'm your host, alana, and it'stime to connect Today.

(00:42):
I'm excited to welcome DrMelissa McHale, a gynecologic
surgeon specializing inminimally invasive endometriosis
surgery.
Known for her compassion,patient-centered care, dr McHale
combines advanced surgicalskills with dedication to truly
listening, educating andcreating individualized
treatment plans.
A graduate at Boston UniversitySchool of Medicine, she

(01:03):
completed her residency at theJohn Hopkins University Hospital
before training for two yearswith internationally recognized
endometriosis specialist, drAndrea Vidali.
She's also highly skilled indynamic ultrasound to map and
diagnose endometriosis.
Dr Miguel takes amultidisciplinary approach,
often collaborating withspecialists from other fields,

(01:24):
and has a special interest inpatients with conditions like
hypermobility, pots and MCAS.
Her mission is to improve earlydiagnosis, reduce delays in
care and help patientseverywhere reclaim their quality
of life.
I'm thrilled for you to hearfrom her today.
Let's get started.
What do you think is the firststep in trying to find a surgeon

(01:46):
?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
So the first step really is establish whether or
not this person is qualified,right, and so you know some of
the things.
It's like do the backgroundresearch on this person right?
Like, did they go to medicalschool, right?
Like, yes, I'm sure they did ifthey're a surgeon.
But like, where did they go?
Where did they do residency?
Did they do a fellowship?
And then, who taught them to doendometriosis surgery?

(02:08):
Right?
Is this something that theylearned in fellowship?
Did they have a specific mentor?
Did they learn it afterfellowship?
Like, really try to figure out.
Like, okay, if even mostfellowship trained gynecologists
in the US don't know how to doa complete excision of
endometriosis surgery, how is itthat this person knows how to
do it?
Right, if they trained at theuniversity of wherever for their

(02:32):
fellowship, but you can't findanyone at the university of
whatever who you would trust todo your surgery, okay, well then
, if this is where that persontrained and they taught them
everything they know, is thisperson really qualified or not
really Right?
And sometimes someone got extratraining after fellowship, they
were mentored by somebody, thesekinds of things.

(02:53):
You know, everyone has adifferent journey and it's not
always necessarily about wherethey did fellowship, but figure
it out.
Don't be afraid to ask likewhen did this become your focus?
Is this something you learnedon your own?
Did somebody teach you, didsomebody mentor you?
Right?
If you wouldn't let theirmentor operate on you, consider

(03:13):
whether or not they shouldoperate on you, right, Like you
know, and some of it's aboutpersonality but a lot of it's
about skill, right?
And so really look into wherethey learned to do that stuff,
right?

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, and I think that's something that is hard,
because, as a patient, we don'talways know who's credible and
who's not.
How do we decipher that as apatient If we don't really?
You know, like you and I, we'rekind of in this endo community,
pretty thick into it, you know,so we have, we know who's
really good, we know who'scredible.

(03:46):
But for people who don't knowand they're just starting this
journey how would you go aboutfiguring out if someone is
credible or not?

Speaker 2 (03:55):
So there's a few different, you know a few
different things you can look at.
Right, there's all thesedifferent lists, right, people
talk about lists on social mediaand those kinds of things of
who is qualified, who believesin excision, all those kinds of
things.
Right, you can look at the sortof reputation both from
patients, like what are theirreviews, that kind of stuff.
But also what do other doctorssay about them?

(04:17):
Right, because often you knowyou can sort of tell what what
doctors associate with otherpeople whose whole world is
endometriosis.
Right, if somebody is spendingall of their time with other
people who totally focus onendometriosis, it's because
they're, they're like you and me.
They feed off of constantlythinking about how to get you

(04:38):
know better at providingendometriosis care.
Right, if they're like totallyon their own, nobody refers to
them.
They're, you know they're notdoing all of these things to
forward their knowledge, thenyou know that should give you
pause.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's a wrap for this Quick Connect.
I hope today's insights helpedyou move forward with more
clarity and confidence.
Do you have more questions?
Keep them coming, send them inand I'll bring you the expert
answers.
You can send them in by usingthe link in the top of the
description of this podcastepisode or by emailing contact
at endobatterycom or visitingthe endobatterycom contact page.

(05:19):
Until next time, keep feelingempowered through knowledge.