Endometriosis

In North America it takes on average 15 years to get a diagnosis of endometriosis. You can imagine the struggles these patients go through on their journey to find answers. These women endure both emotional and physical pain. If you are unfamiliar with Endometriosis, it is a condition where endometrial tissue is found outside of the uterus. This can be found in almost all body tissues and as a result the symptom picture can show a lot of variation.

This condition is well beyond a hormonal concern. This is both an poor immunological state the body is in as well as an unfavorable inflammatory response that in turn is throwing off the hormones. When you address Endometriosis by focusing your first line treatment on hormone balancing your going to limit the treatment success and are failing to address the other pathways involved. Lets break this down in a bit more detail.

Our immune system functions much like a vacuum, cleaning up the body’s faulted cells or cells that are going beyond where they are suppose to be. Obviously, this process is faulted in endometriosis. Not only are the immune cells not doing their job but the body is functioning in a TH2 response, more than a TH1 response. This results in an increase in antibodies and inflammatory signaling which will flood the body with inflammation. Endometriosis patients also are progesterone resistant which means despite the body having adequate progesterone it is not able to use it effectively. This has two primary maladaptive results, one being the body cannot successfully benefit from the positive effects progesterone provides us like its anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety effect on our body. Two, it also results in further alteration in our immune functioning through something known as our T-regulatory cells. Overall we are left in a state of high inflammation specifically in our pelvic cavity which negatively effects out reproductive system. Further more this, again, leads to a hormonal imbalance which leads to a cascade of problems that requires treatment to address multiple systems with in the body.

Treatments:

Conventional treatments tend to target the hormonal system and like most women’s health conditions the first line treatment is oral contraceptive pills and progestins. GnRH analogues and pain medications are also used. Surgical interventions are also sometimes offered on a case to case basis.

Naturopathic medicine can also support the body through the use of many supplements including things like NAC, Melatonin, green tea, pycnogenol and key vitamins C, D, and E. Dietary interventions focused on decreasing the individual patients inflammation also plays its important role. Seeking out individual treatment to determine which of these supplements, doses or combination may benefit you most. The best treatment options also depend on whether the endometriosis patient is planning to conceive in the near future.