** “Endometriosis occurs when the endometrial lining normally found inside the uterus begins to grow outside the uterus. These growths are called lesions. They may grow on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, or other areas near the uterus. The lesions can bleed and break down each month, causing scar tissue and adhesions (scarring that binds tissues together).”
A dear friend of mine just went though an extensive surgery this past week. The reason for this surgery is Endometriosis. For those of you who are not familiar as to what endometriosis, I am not surprised considering it’s not talked about. I hadn’t heard of this either. However this disease affects 5.5 million women in North America alone, according to the US Health Dept.
The tricky thing about endo is that there are many women who live with it day to day and may never know the cause of their pain because it is so hard to diagnose. The symptoms are generalized and can be put off from being caused by something else.
Symptoms include lower abdominal pain, lower back pain, pain in the rectum or vagina. It can cause pain during intercourse. It can affect the menstrual cycle from a heavy period to spotting to pain. It also causes constipation, nausea, abdominal fullness, cramping and difficulty in infertility. Theses symptoms can be caused by a number of other things so it can be very frustrating for a patient to be taken seriously and be tossed up to be caused by your period.
To make matters worse ultrasounds do not pick up on endo and the only way to actually see if one has endometriosis is to go through surgery or have a tiny camera poke around in ones body, which have ricks in itself of potentially damaging the patient.
Women can live with endo and not even know it. There symptoms can be passed on as something that can be taken care of with birth control or Advil, when they aren’t. Endo is something that women should know about and be educated on. Endo is something serious and should be taken seriously.
** Guarnaccia MM, Silverberg K, Olive DL. Endometriosis and adenomyosis. In: Copeland LJ, Jarrell JF, eds. Textbook of Gynecology. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders Co; 2000:687-722.