ABSTRACT
Before the availability of birth control pills, before danocrine, before GnRH agonists, before lasers, before electrocoagulation, before laparoscopy, what was a doctor to do with a patient with pain due to endometriosis who wanted to maintain the possibility of fertility? The surgeon could perform a laparotomy and cut the disease out of the body! While this concept of removing a disease, such as endometriosis, from the body may seem strange to modern day gynecologists, it was the only treatment available for the woman of that time who hoped to become pregnant. There is much to learn from those early surgical pioneers who dared to remove the disease and leave the uterus and at least one tube and ovary behind.
