Tag: period pain

Teenage Symptoms may serve as indication of Endometriosis Severity in adults.

A study undertaken over several years has indicated that the most extensive form of Endometriosis may be predicted by the severity of menstrual periods in teenage girls.

The extensive form of Endometriosis is know as “Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis” (DIE).  There are three distinct forms of Endometriosis (not to be confused with different stages/levels): Superficial Endometriosis, Ovarian Endometriosis and Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis.  DEep Infiltrating Endometriosis is the most extensive, women with this condition will usually have extensive deposits of Endometriosis leading to adhesions in multiple parts of the body, including the vagina, bladder and ligaments that attach the uterus to the pelvis.

It is not unusual for several years (or longer) to go before a woman is diagnosed with Endometriosis due to the difficulty in diagnosis (the only reliable way is still a laproscopy and direct examination of the endometrium cells) and the number of diseases that can be similar to Endometriosis or may present at a similar time due to complications.  However the study, undertaken by Dr Charles Chapron and colleagues included nearly 230 women who had surgery at a medical center between 2004 and 2009, of these 43% had DIE and the rest had the less extensive forms (Ovarian and Superficial).

During the study symptoms and histories were taken, this has led to a general conclusion (however more studies are needed from multiple sources to confirm or to enable more firm conclusions) that women who suffered from more painful periods and were prescribed birth control pills to treat this pain were more likely to suffer from DIE.  Such evidence could lead to faster diagnosis of this severe type of Endometriosis.

However the study also concluded that any advance in diagnosis would not prevent the eventual progression to this invasive form of Endometriosis.

 

Original article source content (for the purposes of brevity this has been interpreted and re-written)

SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility, online November 11, 2010.

Alternative treatments

Starting a new series of articles – we are going to look at some alternative therapies that may help endometriosis sufferers.

Whilst these are largely conjecture – we hope to help inform people and give reasons for these therapies working and back it up with any study data we can locate.  

This is to counter the crack-pot “cures” that do not exist and are proliferating the Endometriosis communities now, especially “cures” which are deamed authoritive because one person got relief, with no science behind them or cures.  Often these can be more dangerous if the advice is followed naively.

As they say… stay tuned for this series which will be semi-regular, in that we will update it when we get the information ourselves!

What is Endometriosis?

This post just covers what Endometriosis is, you will find other information on the site about symptoms and treatments.

Endometriosis is the abnormal growth of endometrial cells that spread to areas in the body where they do not belong.

Usually endometrial cells exist within the lining of the womb and are shed during menstruation (period) – whilst they exist and are shed they do not cause endometriosis (they are supposed to exist in this situation).

Endometriosis cells can grow in many areas of the body, they have been reported in the brain, eyes , nose and more commonly in fallopian tubes, the outer surface of the uterus, pelvic organs, the ovaries,  colon, bladder and the sides of the pelvic cavity.

As normal during menstruation these cells will become filled with blood and may bleed, unfortunately when they are present elsewhere in the body this can lead to pain due to inflammation and other complications.  Often as a result of this symtons are cyclical – especially initially and is often mis-diagnosed as “period pain” or “cramps” etc…  It is worth noting that symtpoms can occur at any time and do vary from person to person, this is one of the reasons why we need sites like this!

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