Endometriosis
If you have heard the word, you probably know endometriosis comes with pain. The endometrium is tissue that lines the inside of your uterus. In the case of endometriosis, tissue similar to endometrium grows on the outside of your uterus, involving your ovaries, fallopian tubes, and the tissue lining your pelvis. When this occurs, the endometrial-like tissue acts like the inside of your uterus on each menstrual cycle: it thickens, breaks down, and bleeds. However, it has no way outside of your body, so it is trapped and leads to excessive pain.
What else happens?
If endometriosis has moved to the ovaries, cysts called endometria may form. As a result, surrounding tissue becomes irritated causing scar tissue and adhesions. It is possible that these adhesions can cause pelvic organs to stick to each other.
What are the symptoms?
One of the first symptoms of endometriosis is extreme pain during menstruation, far more intense than regular period cramps. However, the amount of pain is not a good measure for how severe your case of endometriosis may be: you can have a serious case of it with little to no pain, or a mild case with a lot of pain. Pain that’s associated with endometriosis may become worse with time, and the following symptoms often accompany it:
- Painful periods for extended time: pelvic pain and cramping may begin before your period and extend for days after it, coupled with abdominal pain and lower back ache
- Pain during or after intercourse is common with endometriosis
- Pain with bowel movements or urination
- Bleeding excessively during your period, or bleeding in between periods
- Infertility is also associated with endometriosis, as the condition is often found when women seek fertility treatments
Some other symptoms of endometriosis may include fatigue, diarrhea, constipation, and bloating or nausea.
What causes it?
Some of the most common causes associated with endometriosis are:
- Retrograde menstruation: when menstrual blood containing endometrial cells flows back into the fallopian tubes and into the pelvic cavity, not out of the body
- Transformation of peritoneal cells: when cells that line the inside of your abdomen become endometrial-like cells due to hormones or immune factors
- Embryonic cell transformation: when embryonic cells turn into endometrial-like cells during puberty
- Immune system disorder: when your body would not recognize and destroy endometrial-like tissue as a threat that is growing outside of your uterus
What are some of the available treatments?
Treatments depend on how severe your case of endometriosis is, and medication is taken as a first approach, with surgery following in extreme cases.
- Pain medication to ease menstrual cramps
- Hormonal contraceptives to control the hormones responsible for the buildup of endometrial tissue each month
- Progestin therapy can stop menstrual periods and the growth of endometrial implants
- Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Gn-RH) agonists and antagonists block the production of ovarian-stimulating hormones, thus lowering estrogen levels and preventing menstruation, and leading to endometrial tissue shrinking
- Aromatase inhibitors is another way to reduce the amount of estrogen in your body