Knowing More About Endometriosis

Endometriosis afflicts so many women all across the globe. You may be familiar with some of the famous women who have suffered from endometriosis like Marilyn Monroe who spend a huge part of her life in pain because of this condition. She even became addicted to pain killers, and not many people that the reason was endometriosis.

Other famous women in our global history are Queen Victoria, American actress Susan Sarandon, and popular British personality, Anthea Turner.

The symptoms of endometriosis are heavy and painful bleeding, irregular periods, pain in the affected areas, poor bladder and bowel movements, and emotional upsets like mood swings and depression.

The pain from endometriosis comes from the irritation to the nerve endings from the endometrial growths or cells that appear outside of the uterus. Since poor bowel movements is very common, endometriosis is not always considered at the start. Doctors could consider diet and even food poisoning if the incident happens without warning and there are no other visible signs of endometriosis.

The difficulty of this condition is up to today, there has been no single set of causes that have been established. This results in no single drug that can cure this condition. What doctors can do is to treat the symptoms in the hope of alleviating the pain and discomfort of women.

A woman can also get cysts because of this condition. They are usually small in size, about 3 centimeters only, although there have been cases of larger cyst, up to 10 centimeters in size.

If a cyst grows in the ovary, some doctors refer to it as a chocolate cyst. The medical term, however, is endometriomas.

The two common ways of treating this condition is through drugs or through surgery. The choice is really up to the patient and her doctor, and will depend on several factors, including whether she wants to get pregnant or not. The most radical surgery or procedure is a hysterectomy because it totally eliminates all opportunity for future pregnancies. Thus, any decision for this kind of surgery must never be taken lightly. The pain may cause a woman to consider this option, but she may come to regret it in the future, especially if she is still young.

Unfortunately, for some reason, endometriosis is not getting a lot of research attention in spite of the fact that over 5 million American women suffer from this condition in varying stages. This is why there is a scramble among women and doctors to seek other alternative treatments like changing the diet and nutrition plans, supplements, and exercise.