Endometriosis: What is This Mysterious Disease?

Endometriosis is a mysterious gynecological disease which affects more than five million women in North America alone.

Symptoms of endometriosis can include very painful cramps and periods, heavy periods, chronic pelvic pain (including pain in the lower back and pelvic area), intestinal pain, pain during or after sex, and infertility. This pain is caused by displaced endometrial tissue (like that which lines your uterus).

Women who have endometriosis often experience pain before and during their period.

This pain is caused when the displaced endometrial tissue begins bleeding, just like the tissue which your uterus sheds during your period. However, the displaced tissue has nowhere to go.

This happens each month during a woman's period, and over time the displaced tissue can cause nodules or bumps to grow on the surface of organs, or they can become ovarian cysts.

Endometriosis is one of the leading causes of infertility in women. Approximately 30 to 40 percent of women with the disease will be unable to conceive. Currently, the relationship between endometriosis and infertility is being researched.

There is no cure for endometriosis; however doctors can try to treat the pain in several different ways.

Pain medications (over-the-counter or prescription) are often used with women who have mild to moderate pain, the pain will go away temporarily but will return when the medication wears off.

Hormone therapy such as birth control and progesterone-only pills are often prescribed to women who have small areas of endometriosis and who have mild to moderate pain. Birth control pills help to regulate the growth of the uterine tissue and helps decrease the amount of blood a woman loses during her period. Progesterone pills reduce a woman's period or stop it completely; this significantly helps to improve symptoms.

Surgery is performed on women who have severe pain and/or extensive damage due to endometriosis.

A laparoscopy is often used to diagnose and treat endometriosis by making a small cut (or cuts) in the abdomen. The abdomen is then inflated with a harmless gas and the surgeon uses a laparoscope to see the endometrial growths. To remove the growths doctors often destroy them with intense heat and seal the blood vessels without stitches (this is called cauterizing).

A laparotomy is a major abdominal surgery. During a laparotomy doctors remove the endometriosis and/or perform a hysterectomy. During a hysterectomy the ovaries and fallopian tubes may also be removed if they endometriosis has damaged them.

While there is no cure for endometriosis, these treatments can sometimes help reduce pain and/or make it go away completely. It just depends on the woman and the severity of her endometriosis.

Source: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, "Endometriosis: He's what we do know about endometriosis..." National Institutes of Health.
URL: (http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/endometriosis/sub2.cfm#what)