Endometriosis causes crippling pain in women, with some spending up to a month of every year debilitated by it.
“We’re talking about pain that’s beyond ‘I took two ibuprofen and went to work,’” says Dr. Kristin Riley, chief of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery at Penn State Health Medical Center. “We’re talking about pain that keeps people from living their lives.”
The condition involves tissue normally found in the uterus instead growing in the ovaries, bowels, bladder and elsewhere, Riley shares. It affects roughly 190 million women around the world, with Black women typically diagnosed two and a half years later than white women.
The pain caused by endometriosis ranges from endurable to excruciating, Riley adds. Sometimes women can shrug it off, while at other times leaving the house or getting out of bed isn’t an option for days at a time.
There’s no cure, but doctors have become adept at diminishing its agony, Riley notes. Women with endometriosis or chronic pelvic pain now have a wealth of options to choose from, including some geared to very specific kinds of pain.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Riley said in a Penn State news release. “It’s very individualized.”
Pain during a period doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem, Riley says. But when it becomes debilitating, a woman should speak with her doctor.
Some questions Riley asks of her new patients include what the pain is like, where it is coming from, and what it keeps them from doing.
“Some people have this cramping pain,” Riley shares. “Some people have sharp shooting nerve pain or muscle pain. Some people have something that starts out as bad period pain, and then it moves on to other organs – gastrointestinal pain, bladder pain, abdominal wall pain, back pain — or all of those things.”
The organs in a woman’s pelvis all function in a cavity about five inches wide, meaning that when one organ is inflamed, the problem often affects others. Women with endometriosis pain often discover bladder or bowel aches, as well as problems with sexual function and fertility.
RELATED: Endometriosis: The Pain Is Not In Your Head
How to find relief
Potential treatments include:
