Endometriosis
"It's not easy to diagnose because depending on where the endometrial deposits are, the symptoms can be quite different. It's an unrecognized problem among teenage girls, and it's something that every young woman who has painful menstruation should be aware of ... it's a condition that is curable if it's caught early. If not, if it's allowed to run on, it can cause infertility, and it can mess up your life."― Hilary Mantel
Endometrial tissues are shed each month in the menstruation, sometimes they outgrow from the uterus and show problematic symptoms. The biological process, in which the tissues to the womb lining outgrow towards ovary and fallopian tube, is known as Endometriosis. This process has not been observed to be restricted to any specific age. It can occur in any life stage and have a significant impact on your life in the long run.
Stages of endometriosis
The process of endometriosis is comprised of four stages:
- I-minimal stage
- II-Mild Stage
Both of these above-mentioned stages indicate the outgrowth of tissues and the severe scarring of tissues.
- III-Moderate Stage
- IV-Severe Stage
Both above-mentioned stages show more severe scarring and infertility is the most common symptom that normally comes with stage IV of this disorder.
Symptoms
Endometriosis has the following symptoms that appear with the varied combination in every female:
- Lower abdominal and pelvic pain
- Severe menstruation cramps
- Severe pain during and after sex
- Trouble in getting pregnant
- Heavy periods
- Feeling of sickness
- Feeling of depression
- Pain while excreting urine of feces
- Endometriosis lesions cause the inflammatory fluid that may cause Infertility and affect ovulation.
- Chronic fatigue
Moreover, endometriosis periods are accompanied by many problems such as constipation, diarrhea, and coughing blood because of endometriosis in the lungs and chest, and blood in the urine.
Causes
Various factors may cause endometriosis. However, significant factors have not been found yet as there are limited studies on this particular disorder.
The most probable causes are as follow:
- Genetically this problem may run through families
- It may affect certain ethnic groups more
- Retrograde menstruation in which the menstruation blood flow back to the body
- Often staying sick due to the immune system weakness
Treatment
The symptoms usually subside on their own, so immediate treatment is often not needed and women also don’t seek instant help in this regard. Therefore you can write a pain and symptoms diary before visiting your physician which may help you to get suitable treatment. However, there is no significant cure for endometriosis. Your treatment is completely dependent on your doctor’s prescription. However, some remedies may help you to reduce the symptoms however we do not recommend any of the therapies without a proper health examination and doctor’s consultation. Effective remedies for the treatment of Endometriosis are mentioned below:
1- Medication
- Use of painkillers such as Paracetamol and Ibuprofen.
- Hormones medicine such as Gonadotrophin-releasing Hormone.
- Aromatase inhibitors may cause the automatic implantation of endometriosis but it has an effect of inhibiting the estrogen in ovary and adipose tissues.
- Danazol helps in shrinking the pain in endometriosis implant through the inhibition of estrogen production.
2- Surgery and Test
- Removal of endometriosis affected parts through operation or surgery.
- Removal of endometriosis tissues’ patches through surgery.
- Hysterectomy (the removal of the uterus).
Given remedies will only help to reduce symptoms. For a whole treatment contact your gynecologist. Such disorders are commonly treated by obstetricians’ gynecologist. They may recommend further tests such as uterine ultrasound and laparoscopy which are also important in differentiating ovarian cancer that can cause several symptoms that can be penetrated as endometriosis symptoms. Laparoscopy is also useful because it may show the random microscopic biopsies that are not visible normally or in other medical conditions. This may help them to examine the patches of endometriosis tissues perfectly and to identify the certainty and extent of tissue outgrowth of endometriosis.
In conclusion, due to no known cause of endometriosis, it is difficult to control its prevalence but with seeking proper medical help and care the symptoms can be managed in a way that causes minimum life pattern disruption.