Endometriosis is often diagnosed late. Affected women not only suffer from recurring severe pain, but are also often under great psychological pressure due to the lack of understanding of some doctors and fellow human beings. Endometriosis is officially considered difficult to treat. Conventional medicine operates or prescribes medication. It is often completely forgotten how important and effective naturopathy is. We explain how endometriosis develops, what causes are possible, what symptoms can occur and what holistic therapy options are available.
What is endometriosis?
The term endometriosis comes from the word endometrium. In healthy women, the uterine lining is located exclusively in the uterus, where it builds up on the uterine wall in the course of the monthly cycle and – if fertilization does not occur – breaks down again during the monthly bleeding. The process is controlled by various hormones, the sex hormones.
Endometriosis is a disease in which the lining of the uterus forms not only in the uterine cavity, but also outside the uterus – e.g. on the bladder, intestines, in the ovaries and fallopian tubes or on the peritoneum. The growths can occur not only on the outside of the respective organs, but also inside. This is called deep endometriosis or deep infiltrating endometriosis.
Is endometriosis benign?
The growths of endometriosis are benign in the vast majority of cases. However, they can lead to severe abdominal and back pain and many other complaints, because they cannot be broken down again during menstruation and drained through the vagina – like the mucous membrane in the uterus.
Although the growths also bleed during the monthly period, the blood cannot leave the body, so that – depending on the severity of the disease – blood clots form in the abdomen, which can form into blood-filled cysts on the ovary. They are also called chocolate cysts because of their brownish color.
How can I tell if I am affected? The self-test
You cannot definitively determine whether you are affected by the disease. Only a doctor can do that. However, you can use the following questions to see whether endometriosis could be a possible cause of your symptoms. To do this, answer the following questions of the self-test and give yourself one point for each yes.
With more than 3 points, the disease could possibly be present, with more than 5 points, endometriosis is very likely. Have your doctor examine you accordingly so that he or she can make a clear diagnosis.
- Do you have such severe pain during your period that you have to call in sick?
- Are you often tired and exhausted?
- Do you have pain during sexual intercourse or gynecological examinations?
- Do you have irregular bleeding?
- Have you been trying to get pregnant for a long time, but without success?
- Are your period pain sometimes so severe that painkillers no longer work and you feel nauseous?
The symptoms
The type and severity of the symptoms depend on where the endometriosis lesions settle, how severe this is and also how aggressive the respective form is. Among the symptoms that can occur with the disease are the following:
- Severe pain in the abdomen, especially in the time before and during menstruation (dysmenorrhea), sometimes also in the time around ovulation
- Pain so severe that conventional painkillers often do not work
- Pain with nausea and vomiting
- Pain that radiates to the back and hips
- Chronic pain every day
- Pain during bowel movements (dyschezie) – blood in the stool before and during menstruation
- Pain during sexual intercourse (dyspareunia)
- Pain during gynecological examinations
- Heavy and long periods
- Intermenstrual bleeding and spotting
- Sudden fainting due to severe menstrual pain
- If the intestines are affected, digestive problems such as flatulence, diarrhea or constipation can occur.
- If the urinary tract (urinary tract, bladder) is affected (in 1 to 5 percent of endometriosis patients), it can lead to pain when urinating, frequent urinary tract infections ( cystitis ) or blood in the urine. The latter especially during shortly before or during menstruation.
- If the bladder and/or intestines are affected by endometriosis foci, adhesions can occur between the individual organs, which exacerbates the symptoms.
- Unfulfilled desire to have children
- Tiredness and exhaustion
The causes and risk factors
The causes of the disease are not yet known. Conventional medicine is looking for a possible genetic disposition (i.e. the genetic make-up is suspected to be an important risk factor), but also for ways in which the endometrial cells (endometrium cells) could have left the uterus.
For example, the so-called retrograde menstruation, i.e. menstruation in the wrong direction, is being discussed. While normally the lining of the uterus leaves the body via the vagina during menstruation, during retrograde menstruation individual endometrial cells would migrate further into the body, namely via the fallopian tubes into the abdomen, settle there and finally form endometriosis lesions. This migration of endometrial cells does not have to happen during menstruation, but can also take place around ovulation.
Early first menstruation, short menstrual cycles, no pregnancy and few breastfeeding days are also considered risk factors.
What are the causes and risk factors from the point of view of naturopathy?
From a naturopathic point of view, many other factors are involved in the development of a disease. This is because a healthy body would prevent the colonization and proliferation of endometrial cells in the abdomen, even if they managed to leave the uterus.
Naturopathy therefore tends to check factors that can irritate the organism accordingly and throw it out of its healthy balance, so that it loses the ability to self-regulate and self-heal in some areas and disorders such as endometriosis can now occur.
From a naturopathic point of view, the causes are the following:
- Exposure to chemicals, such as some UV filters, pesticides, and other toxins that can contribute to endocrine disruption
- Exposure to cadmium (risk of Endo. increases by 3.4 times), because cadmium is considered a so-called metalloestrogen, a metal with an estrogen-like effect
- Exposure to nickel (one study showed that endometriosis patients had elevated nickel levels)
- According to some studies, elevated iron levels also seem to increase the risk of the disease.
- Oxidative stress is also a risk factor, while antioxidants may provide some protection (2).
- Deficiency of vital substances
- Stress
- Intestinal flora disorder
- Estrogen dominance (an increased estrogen level in relation to progesterone can cause an imbalance)
- And many more
Can I still get pregnant?
If the fallopian tubes also stick together due to the growths (endometriosis lesions), the affected woman can become infertile. However, the usual endometriosis operations can also lead to scarring and adhesions, which can also lead to impermeability of the fallopian tubes and thus to infertility.
The disease is therefore the cause of an unfulfilled desire to have children in 40 to 60 percent of infertile women. Often, the disease is therefore only discovered during the appropriate examinations – even in women who have not previously had any symptoms, because Endo. can also be asymptomatic.
At the same time, it is known that the fertility of affected women is “only” reduced by an average of 50 percent, which means that in many cases women can become pregnant despite the growths (34).
What are the consequences of endometriosis?
Endometriosis can have stressful consequences, such as problems in relationships, depression, anxiety symptoms, problems at work or at school/university, and a restricted social life. Although it is a physical illness, it also affects the psyche, the relationship with the life partner and the social environment of the affected women in many areas. The recurring severe pain, exhaustion and all the other symptoms mean that you cannot participate in many social events (celebrations, events, meetings with friends, etc.).
Absenteeism also occurs again and again at work, in training, at school or at university. At the same time, there is often a lack of acceptance or understanding on the part of doctors and teachers, life partners, friends and relatives – not least because of the still low level of awareness of endometriosis and its symptoms.
The Endometriosis Association reports on its website that 50 percent of patients have problems in their relationship and just as many at work. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that almost 50 percent of those affected also suffer from depression and even over 60 percent from anxiety symptoms. In addition to medical treatment, psychological care is therefore always required.
Is the disease dangerous?
People often ask whether the disease is dangerous, which usually means whether it is a life-threatening disease or whether the growths can perhaps develop into cancer. Endometriosis is a benign disease. It is not dangerous or life-threatening, but it can lead to severe pain and severely affects the quality of life.
Do you get cancer from endometriosis?
In some cases, the disease can cause cancer. A 2017 study showed that endometriosis increases the risk of ovarian cancer, but not the risk of uterine cancer (31). Over a period of 18 years, about 200,000 women and their medical histories had been observed.
In a 2015 study, it was found that the risk of cancer depends on the type of Endo.: Women with growths on the ovaries had a four times higher risk of ovarian cancer than women without Endo. If adenomyosis (enlargement of the uterus) occurred in the course of endometriosis, then both the uterine and ovarian risk increased fivefold.
If the growths occurred elsewhere in the body, then the risk of colon cancer increased 13-fold. In terms of breast cancer, there was no increased risk from Endo. (32).
How many women are affected?
Endometriosis affects an estimated 10 to 20 percent of all women of childbearing age, making it the second most common gynecological disease in this age group. (The most common disease is the fibroid of the uterus).
Among women who suffer from painful menstruation (dysmenorrhea), 40 to 60 percent have their symptoms due to Endo., and among women who are infertile or have limited fertility, 20 to 30 percent suffer from the disease.
On average, it takes more than 10 years for the women concerned to receive a diagnosis, i.e., for endometriosis to be identified as the cause of their years of suffering. It is not uncommon for these women to have a veritable medical odyssey behind them, and they have had to hear several times that their complaints are of a psychological nature or that they are normal menstrual complaints that they have to live with.
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