Is Your Period Pain Actually a Red Flag For Endometriosis?
Raising awareness is important for endometriosis as this disease is often ignored by patients and doctors and passed off as a regular period pain. Period is something that is almost a taboo topic so abdominal pain is normally brushed under the carpet as being part of the same problem.
Even for doctors, it is a hard-to-diagnose disease.
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In endometriosis, cells that are similar to the uterus grow outside of the uterus. It is not known exactly why this happens. This tissue, which does not belong outside the uterus, can then break down, bleed, and cause symptoms.
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The most common symptom of endometriosis is the pain in the lower part of the belly that can occur, before, during or in between monthly periods, during or after sex, when urinating or having a bowel movement.
Sometimes people have no symptoms of pain but can have trouble getting pregnant because of this condition.
An initial diagnosis can be made by your doctor based on your history and a physical examination and an ultrasound might be helpful but a definite diagnosis can only be made by tissue biopsy taken by most commonly a laparoscopic surgery.
Endometriosis can be treated in different ways. The right treatment for you will depend on your symptoms and on whether you want to be able to get pregnant.
The options for medications include:
●Pain medicines – This just treats the pain but do not make the endometriosis go away.
●Birth control medicines – Certain birth control medicines can help reduce pain symptoms. This treatment is not appropriate for women who are trying to get pregnant.
●Medicines that stop monthly periods – This can be helpful for women who do not improve with birth control medicines.
In some women, surgery to treat endometriosis can be an option. However, different types of surgery can be done:
●Laparoscopically remove endometrial tissue in places outside the uterus.
●Removal of the uterus of the woman (hysterectomy.
