I had pain in the medial meniscus area and continued to run with it for ~12 months or so. It got worse and worse to the point where I had to stop running. Once every few weeks during that 12 month period I would bend my knee in a strange way (e.g., quickly getting out of a car) and I would get very intense pain. Anyway, an MRI confirmed a bad tear, and I opted for the surgery (removed ~15% of meniscus), and was on a stationary bike ~10 days later, and started back running (slowly) after about 3 weeks. Six weeks post-surgery I was running 5-6 miles per day pain free. It's now 18 months later and I have no pain.
Personally, I'd recommend the surgery so long as they go in and remove part of the tear vs. repairing the tear. A repaired meniscus can put you on the shelf for 6 months of no running, whereas you can put weight on the knee immediately following a surgery where they remove a piece of the meniscus.
Not a doctor here so take all this fwiw. Just personal experience that I thought I'd share.