A woman’s body is such an amazing thing because of all that it can endure. Every month a woman bleeds for 3-7 days without the loss of life. A woman can carry a child for 10 months and then push said child out through one of the smallest openings in the body that expands 10 times its size to make room for the baby to come out of. The female body is amazing and does amazing things but it does make you wonder if some of these things that happen to a woman's body could be the reason for other health conditions to develop. Can one thing lead to another? Can certain things cause a woman's health to decline or get better? How does the body of a woman truly work?
How Does Endometriosis Work?
First, what is endometriosis? Well, endometriosis is a typically painful disorder that is usually painful, where endometrial-like tissue mimics the tissue that grows in your uterus causing it to grow outside of your uterus. It usually involves the whole reproductive system which is the ovaries, tissue lining of the pelvis and the fallopian tubes.
Endometrial-like tissue thickens just like the actual tissue, breaks down and bleeds with every menstrual cycle. The only difference is that this tissue has no way to leave your body since it’s outside of the uterus leaving it trapped in the body.
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If endometriosis develops in the ovaries, cysts (endometriomas) can begin to form. The surrounding tissue starts to become irritated and this can lead to scarring. Scarring leads to fibrous tissue, which causes the pelvic tissue and organs to stick together making it very painful.
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What Does It Do To Your Body?
Endometriosis can cause many debilitating symptoms. With endometriosis, you can experience pain when having or after sex.
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You can experience painful periods where pelvic pain and cramps are severe and can happen days before your period and last days after your period.
It can cause excessive bleeding where you experience heavy menstrual bleeding or even bleeding in between periods. Endometriosis can also cause infertility as well as constipation, diarrhea, nausea, bloating, and painful bowel movements and urination.
The severity of your condition does not correlate with the type of pain you may experience with endometriosis. You could have an extreme condition of endometriosis but feel no pain at all or you could have a mild case of endometriosis and experience extreme pain.
Can It Lead To An Early Menopause?
Unfortunately, one condition can cause problems within your body and lead to future complications and endometriosis is one of them. There is a chance that endometriosis has the ability to lead to early menopause for women. This is because of endometriomas (cysts on the ovaries) affecting the ovarian reserve.
Endometriosis has been linked to lower ovarian reserves, ovarian aging and menopause timing.
Chronic inflammation has also been linked to early menopause because women who are diagnosed with endometriosis have peritoneal fluid, which contains proinflammatory and oxidative stressors. Both can lead to early menopause and cause women to experience vasomotor symptoms, such as hot flashes and night sweats. This is because of the damage these stressors can cause to the ovarian function.
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Cure? Prevention? Treatment?
Is there a way to prevent endometriosis? Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent endometriosis because there is no real cause as to why this condition develops.
Some risk factors that may put you at a higher risk of developing endometriosis are never giving birth, low body mass index, disorders of the reproductive tract, starting your period at an early age, heavy menstrual periods and more.
Though there is no cure and no way of prevention, there are treatment options that can help make it easier to conduct daily tasks and avoid experiencing debilitating symptoms.
