Monday, April 19, 2010

Endometriosis doctor.

Endometriosis is a disease for which their is no medical cure but there are medical options to treat the symptoms and pain it causes. The type of treatment you choose will depend on what your future plans are as far as having kids. It is important that you talk to your doctor because the treatment can vary from woman to woman depending on their symptoms and future plans.

The cause of endometriosis is unknown but doctors and medical researchers do know a diagnosis of endometriosis refers to the growth of endometrial tissue outside the uterus. This growth usually occurs in the abdomen and can affect the reproductive organs and the bowels.

These endometrial cells react to estrogen just as the lining of the uterus does and they thicken with the blood and nutrients a fertilized egg would need to implant. During menstruation the trapped endometrial cells cannot leave the body a simply bleed into the abdominal cavity. this process repeats every month and causes scar tissue to form in the abdominal cavity.

One form of endometriosis treatment is the use of hormones to regulate a woman's monthly cycle. Sometimes this can be as easy as a prescription for birth control pills. Birth control pills help shrink the endometrial tissue which in turn reduces the pain caused by it. Birth control pills can also be taken in conjunction with NSAIDs like ibuprofen to help relieve the pain.

If birth control pills do not work to control the endometriosis a stronger hormone therapy may be needed. Drugs such as Danazol, Gestrinone and Lupron keep the ovaries from producing estrogen by reducing the hormones released by the pituitary gland. Without estrogen the endometrial cells cannot grow during the woman's monthly cycle. This is in essence drug induced menopause and the symptoms associated with menopause can accompany this type of endometriosis treatment.

If hormone treatment does not effectively deal with the endometriosis then your doctor may recommend surgery. There are two type of surgery for endometriosis.

Operative laparoscopy in which the surgeon uses a slender tube inserted into the abdominal cavity through a small incision. This is the only definitive way to diagnose endometriosis. The surgeon can physically see if endometriosis is attached to the organs in the lower abdomen. They can also remove endometrial cysts and lesions by cutting or cauterizing them. There is a good chance that they will not see or remove all the endometriosis with this method simply for the fact that most of it can be to small to see.

The last method of treating endometriosis is a hysterectomy. In this procedure the entire uterus is removed. In severe cases the fallopian tubes and ovaries are removed. This is the surgical way of forcing menopause with a more permanent way of stopping the release of estrogen.

The treatment of endometriosis can be a a long and winding road. There are many ways to approach its treatment. Only you and your doctor can decide which course or sources of action are best for you.
Treatments for endometriosis: Conventional pain killers are effective in reducing the symptoms of pain only and do nothing to shrink the endometrial deposits. In the long run there are no positive effects of these medications. Hormonal treatments can benefit a few women by reducing the symptoms and leading to shrinkage of endometrial deposits but large endometrial deposits do not respond to hormones. Even those deposits that respond flare up within 1-2 years after stopping hormonal therapy. Conservative or radical surgery is also offered to some women.

Natural remedies for endometriosis: Traditional Chinese Medicine addresses the root cause - liver disorder, and has the potential to cure the condition and prevent future recurrences unlike conventional medications. These herbal medicines work by fundamentally changing the functioning of the liver and female reproductive system.

Endometrioma.

If you are having trouble conceiving a baby one of the reasons may be endometriosis, a known cause of infertility. Endometriosis is a condition where endometrial cells grow outside of the uterus, usually in a woman's abdomen, and attach themselves to the reproductive organs and in severe cases other abdominal organs. These cells react to the woman's monthly menstrual cycle the same way the endometrial cells of the uterus do. Unlike the cells inside the uterus, which slough off and leave the body during a woman's period, the endometriosis cells bleed into the abdomen causing pain and discomfort.

Endometriosis does get worse with time as the cells slowly multiply. The result of this is an increase of blood and nutrient matter released into the abdomen each month. With no place to go the blood pools and causes inflammation which in turn can cause scarring on and in the organs affected.

It is this scar tissue which may be responsible for a woman's infertility. It can block the fallopian tubes keeping the egg from reaching the uterus or sperm from reaching the egg. Endometriosis is also responsible for ovarian cysts, which are called endometrioma. These cysts can be extremely painful and can interfere with a woman's ability to ovulate.

Women with mild cases of endometriosis are usually able to conceive and have children. The disease is not advanced enough to cause any lasting affects on the woman's reproductive organs or her ability to get pregnant.

Women with severe endometriosis struggle the most with infertility. Not only does this condition produce scarring and cysts, it can cause a distortion of the pelvic anatomy. The endometriosis actually fuses organs together, pulling them away from their natural position. Ovarian cysts are not only painful but can damage eggs in the ovaries, reducing the quality and quantity of the eggs available for reproduction.

The treatment for women with infertility caused by endometriosis consists of laparoscopic surgery to remove as much scar tissue and endometrial growths as possible. This can then be followed up with six months of a hormone suppressing drug such as Lupron or Zoladex. It is important that women do not attempt conception during this six months as these drugs have been shown to harm unborn fetuses.

It should also be noted that there is a low success rate of women with infertility attributed to severe endometriosis actually getting pregnant. The pelvic distortion and scarring attributed to endometriosis makes natural conception a hard proposition. Women with severe cases of endometriosis can turn to in-vitro fertilization, which has shown some success for those afflicted with this disease.

Symptoms of endometriosis.

The most common symptom associated with endometriosis is pelvic pain, not unlike that of a woman's monthly period. These symptoms can vary among women with some women experiencing little to no pain and others experiencing severe pain.

There also doesn't appear to be a correlation between the amount of pain a woman experiences and the amount of endometriosis in her body. Women with large amounts of endometriosis may have few symptoms while those with small areas of endometriosis have severe pain.

The symptoms of endometriosis usually occur around the time of menstruation, but some women find that they have constant pain no matter the time of the month.

Another symptom of endometriosis is pain during or after sex. For many women this pain leads them to quit having sex and in some cases the pain can be so great that intercourse is impossible.

Dysmenorrhea Painful menstrual periods is a symptom of endometriosis in which a deep pain occurs in the lower abdomen and vagina. This condition does not affect all women with endometriosis though.

Endometriosis can become attached to non-reproductive organs as well. When this happens different symptoms can occur. If endometriosis attaches to the large intestine or bladder abdominal swelling can occur, along with painful bowel movements or painful urination. These woman can also experience bleeding from the rectum during menstruation and nausea or vomiting before their period.

Each month during a woman's cycle this endometrial tissue builds up a lining of blood and nutrients just like the tissue of the uterus. And every month during a woman's period this build up is shed. The blood and tissue shed from the endometrial cells has no place to go and remains in the abdomen causing inflammation and scar tissue. It is this inflammation and scar tissue that causes the pain and other symptoms of endometriosis.

Fatigue is also a symptom of endometriosis. The constant pain and discomfort combined with the bodies fight to rid itself of the menstrual fluid can and will cause exhaustion. As the endometriosis grows and expands it causes greater and greater fatigue. In fact women who suffer from endometriosis run a greater chance of getting chronic fatigue syndrome.

Symptoms can be severe while the endometriosis itself is mild. Mild symptoms can be present or even undetectable and endometriosis can be very advanced. The endometriosis symptoms you experience could have no correlation at all to the extent or severity of the endometriosis itself.

Endometriosis tissue is much like the lining of your uterus. It reacts hormonally the same as the uterine lining. It grows and sheds along with your menstrual cycle. It is widely believed that in some cases, when the uterine lining is shed, it does not leave the body as it is supposed to. Instead, it travels up the fallopian tubes and into the abdominal cavity. Here, it infests the reproductive organs, surrounding tissues and even the nearby organs.

Endometriosis is a progressive disease and can get worse over time. It can spread to the lower back, bowels, kidneys, lungs and other organs, inhibiting organ function. This is why it is particularly important to treat endometriosis even if you do not have infertility concerns.

Symptoms can be mild or severe. They include heavy, painful or irregular periods. Lower back pain and kidney problems are also not uncommon. Many women are not diagnosed with endometriosis until they experience infertility. Endometriosis is usually discovered during a diagnostic laparoscopic surgery while an infertility specialist is looking for infertility causes. A laparoscopic endometriosis treatment may be necessary to restore fertility. Laparoscopy is the only way to definitively diagnose endometriosis
. Other symptoms include menorrhagia or excessive bleeding, bleeding in between periods, pain during sexual intercourse or bowel movements. Endometriosis may also decrease fertility in women and is also more common in women who have had no children. Approximately 1 in 10 women suffer from endometriosis. What causes Endometriosis? Though there are no definitive theories one poasible explanation is that some of the menstrual products flow retrogradely through the uterus into the ovarian tubes and get seeded into the pelvic cavity. Another theory is that endometrial cells are transferred via the blood stream and can account for curious sites like the lungs! Some others postulate an immune mechanism for endometriosis. Traditional Chinese and Oriental medicine has a different understanding of endometriosis, an understanding that is very much in line with modern scientific basis for endometriosis. TCM classifies endometriosis as a liver disorder and believes that blood stagnation in the liver plays a major role in endometriosis. Recent data suggests that chronic exposure to environmental toxins like Dioxins can damage liver health and lead to endometriosis independently. Dioxins are difficult to avoid as they are found in large amounts in fish, meat and diary products. Other foodstuffs that damage liver health include refined foods, wheat flour, caffeine, fried foods, and ice-cold drinks also increase chances of endometriosis. Stress is another big enemy for the liver and in chinese medicine liver is considered to be the most emotionally sensitive organ in the body. Conventional drugs and medications can also lead to liver weakness and stagnation. Painkillers (NSAIDs) which are used often by women with endometriosis can lead to severe liver damage in the long run.

About endometriosis.

The majority of women who suffer from endometriosis also suffer from estrogen dominance. That is they have more estrogen in their hormonal system then normal, much of it caused by outside environmental factors. This is concerning to medical researchers because estrogen is the primary hormone that causes endometrial cells to reproduce and grow. The more estrogen a woman with endometriosis has the greater the tissue growth will be.

One of the outside influences that scientists have studied is caffeine. What they have found that caffeine causes a rise in estrogen in nearly all women.

It was found in clinical studies that women who drank just one cup of coffee had higher estrogen levels then women who had no coffee. These studies also found that as the women drank more coffee their estrogen levels continued to rise to the point that women who drink four to five cups of coffee a day saw an estrogen increase of almost 70%. Those four to five cups equals around 500 mg of caffeine.

There are three different types of estrogen women produce; estrone, estriol, and estradiol. In further studies caffeine has been shown to increase the third one, estradiol, the highest. This is worrisome because it not only causes endometrial cell growth but high amounts of estradiol are known to cause some forms of cancer.

Caffeine is also known to affect other bodily organs in a negative manner. The one organ of the body that removes the bulk of any excess estrogen is the liver. Caffeine interferes with the livers ability to do this, causing a build up of estrogen. As you can see caffeine causes estrogen dominance in two ways, by causing the body to produce more and also preventing the liver from doing its job of removing any excess as well.

The female body also has a hormone called progesterone that naturally counteracts the affects of estrogen. The adrenal glands produce pregnenolone which in turn produces progesterone. Large doses of caffeine, which the vast majority of women and men consume, continually bombard the adrenals until they no longer function correctly causing adrenal fatigue. This naturally leads to a decrease in the production of progesterone and over 50 other important hormones. With nothing to buffer it estrogen continues to build up.

This whole cycle caused by caffeine leads to estrogen dominance. This excess estrogen intensifies the growth rate of endometriosis and contributes to the many symptoms women with this condition suffer from such as fatigue, bloating, back and neck pain, and depression.

The first step to reducing estrogen dominance is to stop the consumption of caffeine in all its forms. Caffeine not only makes endometriosis and its symptoms much worse but it also negatively affects the body's ability to deal with excess estrogen and the affects it has.

The majority of women who suffer from endometriosis also suffer from estrogen dominance. That is they have more estrogen in their hormonal system then normal, much of it caused by outside environmental factors. This is concerning to medical researchers because estrogen is the primary hormone that causes endometrial cells to reproduce and grow. The more estrogen a woman with endometriosis has the greater the tissue growth will be.

One of the outside influences that scientists have studied is caffeine. What they have found that caffeine causes a rise in estrogen in nearly all women.

It was found in clinical studies that women who drank just one cup of coffee had higher estrogen levels then women who had no coffee. These studies also found that as the women drank more coffee their estrogen levels continued to rise to the point that women who drink four to five cups of coffee a day saw an estrogen increase of almost 70%. Those four to five cups equals around 500 mg of caffeine.

There are three different types of estrogen women produce; estrone, estriol, and estradiol. In further studies caffeine has been shown to increase the third one, estradiol, the highest. This is worrisome because it not only causes endometrial cell growth but high amounts of estradiol are known to cause some forms of cancer.

Caffeine is also known to affect other bodily organs in a negative manner. The one organ of the body that removes the bulk of any excess estrogen is the liver. Caffeine interferes with the livers ability to do this, causing a build up of estrogen. As you can see caffeine causes estrogen dominance in two ways, by causing the body to produce more and also preventing the liver from doing its job of removing any excess as well.

The female body also has a hormone called progesterone that naturally counteracts the affects of estrogen. The adrenal glands produce pregnenolone which in turn produces progesterone. Large doses of caffeine, which the vast majority of women and men consume, continually bombard the adrenals until they no longer function correctly causing adrenal fatigue. This naturally leads to a decrease in the production of progesterone and over 50 other important hormones. With nothing to buffer it estrogen continues to build up.

This whole cycle caused by caffeine leads to estrogen dominance. This excess estrogen intensifies the growth rate of endometriosis and contributes to the many symptoms women with this condition suffer from such as fatigue, bloating, back and neck pain, and depression.

The first step to reducing estrogen dominance is to stop the consumption of caffeine in all its forms. Caffeine not only makes endometriosis and its symptoms much worse but it also negatively affects the body's ability to deal with excess estrogen and the affects it has.

Endometriosis severity is measured in stages.

Stage 1 is referred to as minimal endometriosis and may or may not have an effect on fertility. Stage 1 endometriosis is usually treated with medications unless you are trying to conceive. If you are having trouble conceiving, then even minimal amounts of endometrial implants and lesions may need to be surgically removed. Another reason to treat stage 1 endometriosis is because it is progressive and can lead to dangerous organ damage down the line.

Stage 2 endometriosis is mild, but more than just the occasional lesion or implant is visible. Stage 2 endometriosis usually means that at least one of the ovaries has endometriosis present. This can lead to your fallopian tubes being blocked by scar tissues or the ovaries themselves being compromised by the present implants.

Stage 3 endometriosis is considered moderate. Stage 3 is used to describe endometriosis, usually on both ovaries as well as the uterus. Implants and lesions may be deeper and take up more area than stage 2 implants and lesions. Surgical treatment of stage 3 and stage 4 endometriosis historically has had the greatest impact on fertility associated with endometriosis.

Stage 4 is the most severe. Stage 4 is used to describe endometriosis that is prominent in the abdominal cavity. Stage 4 endometriosis can affect many surrounding organs and be very dangerous. This is the stage most commonly associated with infertility.

If you are experiencing any endometriosis symptoms and are having trouble conceiving, then you could have an advanced level of endometriosis. You should never ignore endometriosis symptoms or prolong treatment.

Causes of endometriosis.

If you are a woman struggling with endometriosis there is a very good chance that one symptom you have or are encountering is depression. The symptoms associated with endometriosis are a leading cause of depression in many women. The fatigue, pain, bloating and cramping every day takes it toll on a womans overall sense of well being and happiness and can lead to depression for many women.

Depression is a disorder that affects millions of people every year for a variety of reason. Many women who suffer from endometriosis will also exhibit some signs of depression. For many of them they are so overwhelmed by the symptoms of their condition that they may not realize that they are also depressed. They begin to feel hopelessness with their condition which leads to further depression until they may begin to withdraw from social activities and loose interest in daily activities they used to participate in.

Many times the treatments for endometriosis are a cause of depression. During hormonal therapy the drugs used create a forced menopause and all the symptoms associated with it. These drugs, such as Depo Lupron, force the body to nearly stop producing many naturally occurring hormones and these results in a hormone deficiency. Studies indicate that these hormone deficiencies can lead to depression, whether the menopause is forced or naturally occurring.

Another factor for women who suffer endometriosis is finding a treatment that works for them. Every woman reacts differently to endometriosis and a treatment that works well with one woman may not work as well with another. Time and energy are expended searching for the right treatment or health care provider who can help them. During this search the endometriosis can continue to get worse leaving the sufferer with a sense that no one and no treatment can help them.

There are many factors that can contribute to feeling depressed while struggling with endometriosis. It is important that you talk to your doctor about your condition and what your treatment options are. If a particular treatment is not working for you or just making things worse let your doctor know so you can change what you are doing. Both endometriosis and depression are treatable and in most cases if you can effectively treat the endometriosis your depression will start to go away. But until you find an effective treatment for your endometriosis you can treat your depression symptoms with anti-depressive medications and therapy.

What is Endometriosis?

Although millions of women around the world are suffering from endometriosis, this condition is still largely unknown to many. People tend to confuse this with dysmenorrhea or other PMS problems, but in reality, endometriosis is a far more serious medical condition. Here's some info about endometriosis every woman should know.

Endometriosis is a condition that emerges because of the unnatural growth of endometrial cells. Endometrial cells are supposed to grow only within the uterus, but with endometriosis, they also grow outside the uterus and become endometrial implants causing scarring, inflammation and adhesions. They can appear on the outer tissues of the uterus, the fallopian tubes and anywhere in the pelvic and lower back area. The lungs and even the brain can be effected, although this happens rarely.

The Symptoms of Endometriosis
PAIN is arguably the most common symptom of endometriosis. The degree of pain that endometriosis causes however varies from case to case, depending on the severity of the woman's condition and how well she is able to tolerate pain. Pain can also appear in various parts of the body, depending on how far the condition has spread.

Physical relationships may also be hampered because some women suffering from endometriosis have reported experiencing pain while engaging in physical intimacy. Bleeding afterward can also occur.

Urination and bowel movements are also affected. Women suffering from endometriosis may experience pain during bowel movements or when urinating, especially during menstruation.
The menstrual cycle of a woman is usually aggravated by endometriosis. They may experience far more pain and discomfort than usual. The number of days for their monthly menses may also be lengthened because of endometriosis.

Infertility is a possible symptom or effect of endometriosis. There are many documented cases where endometriosis has caused damage to the fallopian tubes, and this consequently creates problems with getting pregnant and giving birth.

Other common symptoms of endometriosis are nausea and fatigue.How do you Know If You Have EndometriosisIf you're experiencing any of the symptoms mentioned above, it is best that you pay a visit to your personal physician immediately to find out whether or not you have endometriosis.
Your consultation will usually start with an interview about your medical history followed by a physical examination. These two may already be sufficient to determine if you have endometriosis.

If you wish for additional accuracy, your physician may use an imaging test or suggest exploratory laparoscopy surgery to see if internal areas are affected by endometriosis.

How to Treat Endometriosis
There is no known cure for endometriosis, but there are several successful ways of treating the condition and preventing the symptoms from worsening. If pain is your main problem with endometriosis, NSAIDs may be adequate for treating your condition as they can tackle both the inflammation and offer pain relief.

Herbal remedies are also used to treat endometriosis, although individuals must take care in choosing herbs that are of good quality and manufactured to careful standards.

There is anecdotal evidence of alternative treatments such as acupuncture and aromatherapy providing significant relief for endometriosis sufferers.

Continue reading to sign up for our Free Newsletter and discover other natural alternatives for treating endometriosis.

Surgery may also be an option to treat endometriosis. Laparoscopic surgery involves the removal of endometrial growths and implants that are believed to cause the pain for the woman. A hysterectomy will typically only be recommended in special circumstances or where the woman's life is in danger.

Endometriosis is a chronic condition that tends to be progressive so it's important to keep abreast of all the latest info about endometriosis to ensure you are receiving the best treatment.