Endometriosis
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, the information on these pages is gathered from my own experience, books, websites, and other people's experience. I will not be held responsible for any injury resulting from this information. If you have a medical condition, you should seek qualified medical advice and supervision at all times.
I shall be adding more details and references on here in a short while, in the mean time though, I have linked in my short personal story.
What is Endometriosis
Endometriosis is the growth of uterine lining on other surfaces in the pelvic region. It generally grows on the pelvic walls, the outside of the uterus, the bowel, bladder, sometime kidney and stomach. It can be found in various other places around the body, like the lungs or the brain, but those cases are extremely rare.
It generally occurs in women, 1 in 4 women will suffer endometriosis. It typically occurs between the ages of 13 and 50 (beginning menstruation until menopause). It is common that pregnacy will remove the disease, but not in all cases.
Endometrial tissue (the uterine lining) follows a cycle, getting thicker throghout the month then shedding/bleeding during menstruation. Endometrial growths outside the uterus bleed at the same time, in areas where blood isn't meant to go, usually causing varying levels of pain and scarring. The scar tissue (or adhesions) are 'sticky' and often cause things like the ovaries and fallopian tubes to be joined to the wall of the pelvis, or the uterus, or the bowel/bladder etc. These should be free to move, and once stuck down, mobility is reduced and pain can be caused when the adhesions are stretched or broken.
A good way to describe endometriosis, is that it is like a cancer - it is cells growing where they shouldn't. It causes internal bleeding every period.
It can occur alongside adenomyosis (pockets of malformed cells inside the wall of the uterus - causing pockets of blood to form during a period and restricts the utering muscle from contracting), fibroids, cysts, cancer, and various other pelvic problems.
It can cause infertility (many infertility patients have been found to have endometriosis, and once it is removed, have often been able to conceive), and debilitating pain. Chronic pain can cause all number of other complications - damaged immune system and depression being the most common. The severity of the endometriosis is no indication of the level of pain (and vice versa). Some people get continuos pain, others only get it for 1-2 days at the start of their period, some don't get pain at all, yet all could suffer endometriosis.
Endometrisis can grow back after it is removed within 6 months, and there are a number of treatments to slow down this regrowth.
Doctors have no idea what causes endometriosis, but you are more likely to get it if someone in your family has had it, and if you take a longer time to get pregnant. Detection and diagnosis is only certain with laparoscopic surgery and tissue analysis, although extremely bad cases may appear in ultrasound and MRI tests.
