Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a major chronic illness that is not always brought up as a major issue. Luckily celebrities such as Lena Dunham, Tia Mowry and Padma Lakshmi have brought it a little more into the spotlight. Join me to learn about how endometriosis happens and what are some symptoms to look out for to determine if you may have it too!

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Welcome to Episode 14 of Four Vaginas. Only in this episode we're gonna have a discussion on endometriosis. Hello and welcome to four vaginas. Only the podcast about everything. Female. I'm your host, Dr Celestine, bringing you important information about understanding your health and body in the way you wish your doctor would actually explain it. Hi, guys. I'm Dr Celestine here, your usual host of four vaginas. Only in today's episode I thought we would talk about ah, complicated topic and a kind of topic that has a lot of information, which is endometriosis. So stay tuned and listen to this episode. I'm thinking I'm probably gonna break this up into two episodes because there's just so much to say about it. But let's get started. All right, So I want to start off by talking a little bit about what endometriosis is. It's kind of been a hot topic recently, mainly because many celebrities are coming out now stating that they have enemy trio sis and the difficulties they're having in their lives because of enemy trio sis such as Monica Hall Z. Tia Mowry talks about it a little bit. And also Lena Dunham. I think she's probably the most recent and most prominent one, and she talked about her course through, you know, not knowing what she had finally being diagnosed with it all the different treatment and last but not least, the hysterectomy that she recently had because of enemy trio sis. So not everybody that has enemy chose. This gets to the point of his direct to me, but we will talk a little bit about that later. So let's start about talking about how enemy trios is affects the population. So it's been estimated that enemy Joseph's affects one in every 10 women. And there's roughly about 167 million women in the United States. Um, so if it's one in 10 in the United States and that's about 16 million females that are affected with enemy TRO sis. So it's a pretty big deal. So why are we now only hearing about it, right? So a little bit more on what enemy Joseph is basically like you talked about in previous episodes. The uterus, which is low in the abdomen in the area called the pelvis inside of the uterus, has the endometrium, which is the lining of the uterus. It's the same lining that sheds every month. When you have your period, that bloody mess is the end of atrium and part of the inner material lining When it comes to enemy trio sis, this inner parts this inner lining of the uterus is actually dispersed within the abdomen, so in your belly, as opposed to coming out or staying contained in the uterus. Now I'm not saying it's like a period inside your belly, like your bellies filled with blood or anything, just little. Sometimes little specks of the lining are scattered throughout your abdomen. Um, larger specs can also be there, and it can cause additional problems to such a cz blood filled cysts on the ovaries. Now you know how the hell did this happen? Because it really doesn't make sense that if you're having your period every month, that and it comes out one way that the enemy atrial lining should actually go up into your abdomen the other way. But in fact it does. I would say the most common explanation for enemy choses is something called retrograde administration have ever heard of people talking about Mercury being in retrograde and blaming a lot of their emotional problems and stuff on that. It basically means that the planet is rotating backwards. So similar was just the basic definition of what retrograde is is going in the opposite direction. So as opposed to the uterine lining, always coming out vaginally, informing your period every month. Ah, little bit of it goes in retrograde and goes through the fallopian tubes and lands in your abdomen. So this means that the lining of the uterus congee found anywhere, really in the abdomen. It's has been seen on the bladder, on the fallopian tubes, on the ovaries, on your intestines and on your rectum. There are a couple other philosophies for how enemies roses spreads, um, the two of them being through your bloodstream or through your limp stream as well. But the most common theory is this. Retrograde menstruation, which makes sense for most of the cases of enemy trios, is, although I have heard of people finding enemy troops is in the long and in the brain, which leads to, you know, maybe the blood route and the lymph route aren't as far fetched as some people may think. But I would say that most Like most people, I do agree that the majority of endometriosis is because of this retrograde menstruation. So when you have these areas of the uterus, the lining of the uterus rather inside the abdomen, they respond similarly to the estrogen are in our body is just like the uterus responds. So that causes things such as the areas that are in the abdomen to grow a little bit too, cause bleeding, which can lead to scarring and can lead to pain inside the abdomen. Approximately 30 to 50% of people that have enemy trio sis do. It's also experienced some infertility due to scarring that may happen on the fallopian tubes and the ovaries, and also just a generalized inflammation that occurs because you have this. Parts of your lining inside your belly tends to effect a way that the sperm and the egg function, which can also lead to infertility. Some other symptoms, aside from infertility, are having cyclic pelvic pain, which means that every month when you have your period when the body is responding on because of your change in hormones, your enemy trios. This kind of flares up a cz well, and you have a little bit more pelvic pain every month than the average person, although some people with enemy trios is do just have a baseline pelvic pain, It's noted that with enemy trios, it's his pelvic pain. Either presents or increases each month as your cycle comes around each month as well. Also, pain with sex that's a biggie, and not just because of vaginal dryness or because of not being interested in your sexual partner. But you know you have all of the combination's your you don't have any dryness. You know you're very excited about the intercourse. You know you don't have any issues with having sex with this person, but still, it's just very painful. I've seen it also be mostly painful, with deeper penetration when it comes to enemy Drusus. Some also have pain with bowel movements or pain with peeing when it comes to enemy choses because, like I said, the implants of the uterine lining can be around or near your bowel or your bladder, which can affect these two areas as well. Some can also have very heavy menstrual bleeding. You can also have issues with diarrhea and constipation, which are especially notable around the time of your period. Also, you can have something called secret Will back ache with your periods. So that's basically your lower back has very severe pain with every time that you have your period. I know people that are pretty much out of commission because of this back pain. Not only do they have the back pain, but they have the severe cramping. You know, very just classic for enemy trio sis. Also, Sometimes your doctor confined a mass on your ovaries, whether on ultrasound or in exam, because, like I alluded to earlier, that blood that goes in a retrograde fashion into your abdomen can cause assists on your ovaries called Dmitri Omagh's basically blood filled cysts on the ovaries. So that's also very classic for enemy shows us as well. And I'm not saying that you have to have all of these symptoms or, you know a certain amount of these symptoms. But just when you talk about these things, or better yet, ah, lot of times people don't talk about these things. They just think it's part of their regular period and you know you're missing work. You're missing school. You're missing activities that you actually want to participate in and you're feeling miserable and you just think, Oh, this is what women are supposed to go through because they have their period. They've been, you know, damned with this period curse. But really such severe pain and missing out on parts of your life because of it is not normal. And it should be something that it's discussed with with your doctor. So when you go to the office and we ask you how your periods, you know, how is your sexual activity? Don't be shy about answering with the truth, because sometimes we can go down the path of diagnosing you with enemy trio sis. Sometimes I must say it can be other things. But enemy trio sis is one of them and we can figure it out together. You don't have to suffer through something unnecessarily. All right, so you're thinking now I have some of these symptoms and this sounds like something a little bit more than just a regular period, according to what Dr Celestine is telling me, but I wanted a little bit more about what are some of the causes as to why I could be having this Well, let's talk about it. These are things called risk factor, so there's some things that make you a little bit more prone to having enemy trio sis. One is early age of onset of your period. So normally, um, in those women that have had a period that started less than 11 years of age, that's considered an early onset of your period. And I put your risk of having enemy trios is also, if you have short menstrual cycles. Less than 27 days of your menstrual cycle puts you at an increased risk of having enemy trio sis. And like I mentioned before, heavier long periods can also be synonymous with enemy trio sis and can be a risk factor as well. In addition, there is a little bit of a genetic component, especially if it's in your first degree relative like your mother, your sister and you are 7 to 10 times more likely to have enemy trio sis if they have it as well. Now there are some things that can decrease your risk of getting enemy trio sis, which we always like to hear we always like to talk about, especially because one of them in particular is something that you can control yourself and I personally love when you can take control of your own health care. So one of the things that decreases your risk of enemy trio Sisk and can actually decrease the severity of the symptoms as well is exercise. So it's been quoted that at least four hours of exercise a week can benefit your symptoms of enemy trio sis as well as decrease your risk of having enemy trio sis. And also another thing which is interesting is having more kids. So the more Children that you have, the lower chance you have of having enemy trio sis, if you basically think of it like this, if you start bleeding with your periods early and you bleed very heavy and you have very frequent cycles and you're not really someone that has ever had a kid or, you know, ever had any pause in their menstrual cycle to decrease the amount of times that you have bleeding over a few years, then that all of that increases the amount of bleeding that you have, which increases the likelihood that that enemy atrial lining can go into this retrograde menstruation and put little implants in your abdomen of enemy trio sis, so is that kind of makes sense. All right, So I think that looking at this episode is getting a little bit long. And I do want to talk about a little bit more about the symptoms, how it's diagnosis and especially the treatment of enemy trio sis and how it kind of goes in phases. Um, you know, least invasive or more conservative treatments all the way up to surgical options and the reasons why you might do one versus the other and whatnot. But I would want to say one thing, especially about the, uh, Lena Dunham case, is the fact that she talks about how you know she was having the symptoms around the age of 25 she didn't really get fully diagnosed until many, many years later. Um, this just puts emphasis on what I was saying earlier. Don't hide these things about your period from your doctor because we need to know these things in order to really help you and suffering with your period. Although yes, having your period sucks, it's not something that you should have to be suffering through like that every single month. So go to your doctor, talk about it and see you know what they can do to help so that you don't fall into the group of one of these people. That, according to the National Institutes of Health, takes 3 to 11 years from symptom onset in order to come to a final diagnosis. Let's talk about it early. All right, Thank you guys, for listening to a another episode of four vaginas only. I do truly appreciate every single one of you continue following me on Instagram at four vaginas only, as well as join our Facebook group at four vaginas only where you will get the most up to date notices on when I post a new podcast, but not more up to date than subscribing to the four vaginas only podcast on iTunes. Because as soon as I post it, you will get that notification probably a little bit earlier than the Facebook or Instagram groups. But if you want to learn a little bit more about my life, about the day to day experience is being an open joi n um, just about the crazy, random things that I do daily. Then please follow me on social media and let's link up there. All right. Have a great day, guys.