March is a very important month on the fertility calendar - Endometriosis Awareness Month. Endometriosis or endo, can be a crippling disease, causing painful periods and often painful sex. Many people are unaware that it can also affect fertility.
'Endometriosis is a disease that only affects women. It's an inflammatory condition and we think it may be linked to the immune function,' medical director of the TT IVF and Fertility Centre Dr Catherine Minto-Bain told Newsday.
'When you have endo, cells just like those from the lining of the womb, grow in another part of the body, where they're not supposed to be. When those cells survive in the wrong places, they behave just as they would do if they were in the womb. They match your menstrual cycle, and grow and bleed each month,' causing irritation, damage and often pain. In the body's attempt to heal the area damaged by the endometriosis, scar tissue is formed, causing more problems and pain. Endo can also cause abdominal bloating, diarrhoea, constipation and bladder symptoms. But, she said, sometimes some women with endo have no symptoms.
Symptoms include:
* Pain in the lower tummy or back that's usually worse during your period
* Severe period pain that prevents normal activities
* Pain during or after sex
* Feeling sick or suffering constipation or diarrhoea during your period
* Very heavy periods
'Problems getting pregnant or recurrent pregnancy loss or miscarriages can also be a sign of endo. It can affect the lining of the womb and make it hard for the embryo to implant and grow in the uterus.'
Endo typically affects the pelvic area and reproductive organs, but it can be found anywhere. 'There are even rare occasions where it causes bleeding in the lungs and brain,' Minto-Bain said.
Endo usually grows in and around the surface of the pelvic organs; its often found in the ovaries, where it may form cysts; it can be found embedded in the muscle tissue of the womb and can cover the ligaments supporting the womb; it can also be found growing on the neck of the womb, the cervix and the vagina. In rare cases it starts to grow in a surgical scar - like in a C-section scar or hysterectomy scar on the abdomen.
Things people should know about endometriosis
* At least ten per cent of women have endometriosis.
* It takes an average of seven years to get diagnosed with endometriosis.
* The majority of women diagnosed with endometriosis are between ages 20 and 50, but it also happens to teens.
* There are medical and surgical treatments for endometriosis.
'It's difficult to pin down endo statistics because many women with endo don't show any symptoms. Plus, awareness of endo is low, so some women with symptoms think they just have period pain and don't visit their doctor.'
She said because it's a woman's condition that involves sex, periods and infertility, endo still remains a taboo topic.
'
