Endometriosis – What is it, Causes, Symptoms and Treatments!

Endometriosis – What it is, Causes, Symptoms and Treatments  because, throughout a woman’s life, there are several health problems that can arise, diseases and disorders, whose presence is directly related to the feminine. One of the most common is irritating ovarian pain , especially when menstruation comes along with other related disorders such as absence of menstruation, menstrual cramps or dysmenorrhea.

However, it is not a medical condition that is typically detected between 20 to 25 years of age, and it tends to worry many women. It is called as endometriosis , a problem existing in the tissue lining of the uterus, which is called the endometrium or endometrial tissue.

What is Endometriosis:  Endometriosis is a painful, chronic disease that affects millions of women and girls worldwide. It occurs when tissue such as the inner lining of the uterus (called the endometrium) is outside the uterus. Furthermore,  endometriosis is one of the most common medical conditions that affect the lower abdomen in women and there is currently no cure for endometriosis . But there are many things that can be done to alleviate symptoms.

Where Outside the Uterus  Does  Endometriosis Grow: Endometriosis is found in the pelvic cavity:

• Above or below the ovaries
• behind the uterus
• About the tissues that hold the uterus in place
• In the intestines or bladder
• In extremely rare cases, areas of endometriosis can grow in the lungs or other parts of the body.

Symptoms of Endometriosis:  It should not be forgotten that endometriosis has a special relationship with hormonal changes that occur especially in the female cycle. For this reason, it is quite common to appear a few days before menstruation  and persist for the days that it lasts. However, there are certain symptoms that can help in the diagnosis such as:

Pelvic Pain: The main symptom of endometriosis is pelvic pain , often associated with menstruation. Although many women experience cramping during their period, women with endometriosis typically describe their menstrual pain as being much worse than usual. They also tend to report that the pain increases over time.

Painful Periods (Dysmenorrhea):  Pelvic pain and cramping can start before your period and extend several days into your period. In addition, she may also have pain in her lower back and abdomen.

Pain During Intercourse:  Pain during or after intercourse is common to endometriosis .

Pain With Bowels or When the Person Urines:  You are more likely to experience these symptoms during your period.

Excessive Bleeding:  You may notice periods with excessive bleeding ( menorrhagia ) or bleeding between periods (menometrorrhagia).

Sterility:  Endometriosis is first diagnosed in some women seeking treatment for infertility.

Other Symptoms:  You may also experience fatigue, diarrhea , constipation , bloating, or nausea, especially during menstrual periods.

Pain severity is not necessarily a reliable indicator of the extent of endometriosis in women. Some women with mild endometriosis have had severe pain, while others with advanced endometriosis may have little or no pain at all. Endometriosis is often confused with other conditions that can be pelvic pain, pelvic inflammatory disease, or ovarian cysts .

It can be confused with irritable bowel syndrome, a condition that causes bouts of diarrhea , constipation, and abdominal cramping. This syndrome can accompany endometriosis , which can complicate diagnosis.

Main Causes of Endometriosis:  The exact cause of endometriosis is unknown, but there are several theories.

Retrograde menstruation: Retrograde  menstruation is when the uterine lining (endometrium) flows backwards through the fallopian tubes into the abdomen rather than leaving the body as a period of menstrual tissue. This is embedded in Organs pelvic organs and grow.

Retrograde menstruation is believed to occur in most women, but many are able to clear the tissue naturally without it becoming a problem. Retrograde menstruation is the most accepted theory for endometriosis . But it doesn’t explain why the condition can occur in women who have had a hysterectomy.

Genetics:  Endometriosis is sometimes believed tobe hereditary, being passed on through the genes of family members. This condition is more common in sisters and mothers of women with endometriosis .

Population Group:  It can affect women of all ethnicities but is:

• Less frequent in women of African-Caribbean origin
• More common in Asian women than white women
• This suggests that genes may play a role.

Propagation Via the Blood Circulation or Lymphatic System:  This theory does not explain how endometriosis cells enter the blood stream or the lymphatic system theory. This could explain how, in very rare cases, cells are in remote locations such as the eyes or the brain.

Problems With the Immune System:  It is believed that some women’s immune systems are not able to fight it effectively. Women with endometriosis have low immunity (resistance) to other conditions. However, this can be a result of endometriosis , but the cause of the disease.

Environmental Causes:  Endometriosis is can be caused by certain toxins in the environment, such as dioxins, which affect the immune system and reproductive system. However, although research suggests a link between endometriosis and high levels of dioxin exposure in animals it is not currently known whether this is also the case in humans.

Metaplasia:  Metaplasia is the process by which one type of cell is changed to another to suit its surroundings.Es this development that allows the human body to grow in the uterus before birth.

It has been suggested that some adult cells may retain this ability to change, and the shedding of menstrual blood into the pelvis during a period may encourage them to transform into endometrial cells.

Diagnosing Endometriosis:  Various tests are currently used for diagnosing endometriosis . Sometimes they use medical imaging tests to produce an image inside the body that allows them to locate large areas of endometriosis . The two most common imaging tests are ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, the only way to know for sure if you have endometriosis is by laparoscopy.

Laparoscopy:  In this procedure, the surgeon slightly inflates the abdomen with an innocuous gas. After making a small incision in the abdomen, the surgeon uses a small viewing instrument with a light, called a laparoscope, to look at the reproductive organs, bowel and other surfaces to check for endometriosis and not based on the diagnostic appearance characteristic of endometriosis.

This diagnosis can be confirmed through a biopsy, which involves taking a small tissue sample for study under a microscope. Your doctor will only do a laparoscopy after knowing your medical history and doing a complete physical exam, including a pelvic exam.

This information, along with the results of an ultrasound or MRI, will help you and your doctor make more informed decisions about your next treatment.

Why Endometriosis Causes Pain?:  Because many women with endometriosis experience pain during or related to their periods, some researchers are focusing their studies on the menstrual cycle to find answers about pain. Normally, if a woman is not pregnant, her endometrial tissue grows in her uterus, it breaks down into blood and tissue, and it looks like menstrual flow or period.

This cycle of growth and shedding occurs approximately every month. Areas of endometriosis growing outside the uterus also go through a similar cycle: they grow, they break down into blood and tissue and are expelled once a month.

But because this tissue isn’t where it should be, you can’t leave the body in the same way that women’s menstrual flow normally does. As part of this process, areas of endometriosis produce chemicals that can irritate tissue and nearby other chemicals known to cause pain.

Eventually, when passing through the menstrual cycle, areas of endometriosis can grow into lumps or bumps on the surface of the pelvic organs or become cysts (fluid-filled sacs) on the ovaries.

Sometimes, chemicals produced by endometriosis can scar the organs in the pelvic area or come together to make scars themselves so that they appear as one large organ.

Treatments For Endometriosis:  There is currently no treatment to cure endometriosis . Not even a hysterectomy or removal of the ovaries guarantees that symptoms in areas of endometriosis  will not recur. Treatment for endometriosis is usually with medication or a surgical approach.

You and your doctor choose, it will depend on the severity of your signs and symptoms and whether you want to become pregnant. Doctors generally recommend trying conservative treatments first, opting for surgery as a last resort.

Medications for Endometriosis  Pain : Your doctor may recommend that you take an OTC pain reliever, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others) or naproxen (Aleve, and others), to help relieve the pain of menstrual cramps . If you find that taking the maximum dose of these drugs does not provide complete relief, you may need to try another approach to managing your signs and symptoms.

Hormone Therapy:  Supplemental hormones are sometimes effective in reducing or eliminating endometriosis pain . The rise and fall of hormones during the menstrual cycle causes endometrial implants to thicken, break down and bleed.

Hormonal medication can reduce the growth of endometrial tissue implants and prevent new endometrial tissue from forming. Hormone therapy is not a permanent solution to endometriosis . You may experience a return of your symptoms after stopping treatment.

Hormonal Contraceptives: Birth  control pills, patches, and vaginal rings help control the hormones responsible for the buildup of endometrial tissue each month. Most women have a lighter and shorter menstrual flow when they are using a hormonal contraceptive.

The use of hormonal contraceptives, cycle systems – especially continuous – can reduce or eliminate the pain of mild to moderate endometriosis . Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists and antagonists. These drugs block the production of hormones from the ovary to decrease estrogen levels and prevent menstruation. This causes the endometrial tissue to contract.

Since these drugs create an artificial menopause, taking a low dose of estrogen or progestin with GNRH agonists and antagonists can lessen menopausal side effects such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and bone loss.

Progestin Therapy:  A progestin-only treatment, such as an intrauterine device (Mirena), a contraceptive implant, or a contraceptive injection (Depo-Provera), can stop periods of growth and endometrial implants, which can alleviate signs and symptoms. endometriosis symptoms.

Danazol:  This medication suppresses endometrial growth by blocking the production of ovarian hormones for the prevention of menstruation and endometriosis symptoms . However, danazol may not be the first choice as it can cause serious side effects and could be harmful to your baby if you become pregnant while taking this medication.

Conservative Surgery:  If you have endometriosis and are trying to conceive, surgery to remove as much endometriosis as possible while the uterus and ovaries are preserved is called conservative surgery and may increase your chances of success.

If you have endometriosis pain , you may also benefit from surgery — however, endometriosis and pain can return.

Can Endometriosis Become Cancer? Current research has not shown that there is an association between endometriosis and endometrial, cervical , uterine, or ovarian cancer.  In very rare cases (less than 1 percent), endometriosis appears with a certain type of cancer called Endometrial Cancer , but it has not yet been proven that  endometriosis causes this type of cancer.

However, scientists still don’t know what causes endometriosis or what mechanisms are within the body. Additionally, many women are never diagnosed with endometriosis , which makes it difficult to verify any link between endometriosis and other diseases.

For this reason, women diagnosed with endometriosis should be especially alert to changes in their body and should report these changes to their healthcare professional as soon as possible to maintain their health.

Endometriosis Never Goes Away?:  In most cases, endometriosis symptoms subside after menopause because of gradually reduced growth. However, in some women, this does not happen.

If I Have Endometriosis, Does It Mean I’m Not Fertile or Able to Have Children?:  About 30 to 40 percent of women with endometriosis are infertile, making  endometriosis  one of the top three causes of infertility in women. Some women don’t find out they have endometriosis until they have trouble getting pregnant.

If you have endometriosis and want to become pregnant, your health may suggest that you have unprotected sex for six months to a year before resorting to endometriosis treatment.

The relationship between endometriosis and infertility is an important area of ​​research. Some studies suggest that the disease can alter the uterus so that the embryo does not accept it. Other research examines whether endometriosis molts the egg or whether  endometriosis interferes with the way in which the fertilized egg moves towards the uterus.