Endometriosis

This is becoming a more common condition we are hearing on the street affecting 1 in 10 women on a reproductive age. Holy smokes that is a lot!

What is Endometriosis?

It is a chronic inflammatory condition where cells that are similar to those that are in the lining of the uterus grow in other parts of the body which can effect a women’s menstrual cycle causing severe pain.

These irregular cells can also cause organs to stick together in the pelvis and have irregular tissue forming in the ovaries causing follicles to be blocked from being excreted properly. It sounds really painful and it is! Many women know if they have this or not just because the pain is so bad which makes them go and get it checked out by the doctors.

Other common Symptoms of endometriosis:

- Painful intercourse

- Irregular cycles

- Lower back pain

- Heavy bleeding during your period.

What causes Endometriosis?

In western medicine there is no real cause as to why women get this condition except for a family history of endometriosis (which is not 100% correct but you can be genetically predisposed to it) but it’s not the be all end all if someone has it in your family. Because it is an inflammatory condition, it is definitely related more to a few things that cause inflammation therefore causing endometriosis;

- Local Trauma to the area

- Chronic Stress

- Long term Drinking and/or Smoking

- High processed sugars

- Insomnia

- Dehydration

- Emotional Trauma

- High amounts of gluten

- Long term use of medications (even the contraceptive pill)

- Long term illness or disease

From a Chinese Medicine perspective all of the above impact the body in a detrimental way especially if you are genetically predisposed to pelvic floor conditions or inflammatory conditions. How do you know if you are? Take a look in to your family history and see if anyone suffers from any inflammatory or pelvic floor conditions.

Unfortunately General Doctors will only prescribe pain relief medications, hormone therapy such as the contraceptive pill, surgery to scrap out the lining of the uterus to reduce the mutative cell growth and sometimes if there is a lot of damage they will go ahead with a hysterectomy (removal of uterus and ovaries) causing infertility. Sounds super scary right?

But why is this so common nowadays compared to 20 -30 years ago when we didn’t hear of this? (which is not really that long ago but the world has definitely changed a lot in that time)

Nowadays women work more to bring in an income therefore are more busy or have a more stressed lifestyle. Foods are not the same as what they used to be due to mass productions to feed the increased population (therefore having more hormones and pesticides on the crops), more processed foods in the supermarkets, more takeaway options, less physical exercise and more improper use of medications. So there is a lot! And it is now we have to re-learn what is good for our bodies and how to manage our mental loads on a day to day basis.

Chinese medicine can help ease endometriosis by looking in to many aspects of your health and utilise acupuncture and herbal remedies to ease pain and reduce inflammation to get you back to balance.

What you can do for yourself right now is to invest in yourself.

- Eliminate processed sugars

- 30 minutes of physical activity per day

- Create some mindfulness in your day to day routines

- Have 2-3 litres of water per day.

- Zinc and Tumeric are helpful anti-inflammatories

- Magnesium baths

- Stretching

Book in for your appointment to get more out of your health and to get a tailored treatment plan for you.