What is endometriosis!

Endometriosis - the enigmatic disease of the modern age!

This disease is becoming more and more common. It seems to be gaining ground. This could be for a variety of reasons.

• The methods of detecting and diagnosing the disease are improving all the time, so statistics reflect this as growing numbers of cases are detected.
• The seriousness of the disease is gradually gaining momentum and more people are finally beginning to hear about it. This may be through television programs, magazine articles, the internet, or talking to friends. So there is an ever increasing public awareness. This public awareness helps to alert women who have concerns about their health, especially regarding pelvic and menstrual pain, so more women are able to determine whether they have Endometriosis.
• More women are taking their pelvic pain and period pain seriously, rather than thinking of it as normal, so they are pursuing answers from the medical profession.
• Finally, the numbers of women who have the disease appears to be increasing in actuality, especially in the last 30 years or so. It is also more common in industrial countries, where pollution is higher.

Fundamentally, Endometriosis is a serious biological malfunction which focuses on the reproductive organs and the pelvic region of a woman’s body. This disease will start quietly, insidiously and unnoticed. Then gradually, symptoms of painful periods, pain at other times of the month, and a general feeling of being run-down, will start to develop.

In women with Endometriosis, the natural bodily processes of the reproductive system goes seriously wrong. The disease is linked and affected by the menstrual cycle and the hormones that make menstruation happen.

Physically, what happens is that tiny, and sometimes microscopic particles that are similar to the lining of the womb, find their way into the pelvic cavity. These particles behave in the same manner as the lining of the womb. The lining of the womb is called the endometrium, which is where this disease gets its name.

The natural process of the endometrium is to react with hormones produced in the body and each month the endometrium builds up with blood cells and other chemicals to prepare for pregnancy. When pregnancy does not occur then the endometrium sheds this blood and women have a period.

A similar reaction takes place in the stray cells that have found their way into the pelvic cavity. Each month they react to hormones, and break down and bleed, but the blood and tissue shed from these endometrial growths has no way of leaving the body. This results in internal bleeding, breakdown of the blood and tissue from these sites and leads to inflammation.

This process continues for months, or even years before symptoms of serious pain begins to develop. Many women start to suspect something is wrong because the amount of pain they feel with their periods starts to get worse and worse as the months go by. It is then that women start to investigate and question the state of their health.

For other women the disease may not throw up any noticeable symptoms, but they may be having problems with their fertility and are not successful in conceiving. It is then that they seek medical advice which could lead to having a laparoscopy . It is during this procedure that the disease may be found.

As time goes by, this disease will progress and start to do more damage in the pelvic cavity. Eventually it can lead to scar tissue formation, adhesions, bowel problems, as well as a gradual decline in general health.

Endometriosis is not usually fatal (though there can be rare occasions where the symptoms can pose a serious threat to life - please read the Endometriosis stories here to find out more) and it is not cancer. It is not a disease that you catch from another person, nor is it a micro-organism that starts this disease like the processes of other infectious diseases.

Basically it appears that the body, and its natural healing processes are defective. It can strike women at any time of their reproductive life but we are seeing more and more cases of young girls who have Endometriosis.

Recent studies are beginning to indicate that women with the disease are at greater risk of other health problems, but this could be an indicator that women with this disease are actually suffering from a break-down in the immune system. This situation seems to ‘ring true’ as many women who have Endometriosis seem to suffer from a myriad of other health problems.

Endometriosis is serious. It is affecting millions of women around the world. It is not simply disrupting women’s lives, it can be devastating for most women. It affects her health, her quality of life, her possibilities of having children, her income earning potential, her emotional well-being, her relationships, her sex life, her economics if she lives in a country where she has to pay for treatment, her social life; in essence it affects her entire life.

These are the hard facts that surround Endometriosis today. Many women suffer for years and years. They may have one surgical procedure after another. They may spend thousands of dollars on treatment, especially if their health insurance does not cover it. They may travel miles in pursuit of sympathetic and informed medical treatment. This list goes on and on.

But there are some glimmers of hope beginning to appear.Many women today are beginning to take care of their own health with regard to dealing with Endometriosis. They are starting to realize that all is not clear cut with the objectives and priorities regarding health care in the modern world.

The hope and courage for many women is gained through gathering and sharing information, especially from other women who have the disease. Many self-help measures are being exchanged between fellow sufferers, and where these measures are proving successful, this instills the value and proof that these methods will help.

How do you know that you have endometriosis?