Medical Literature

In the “Resources Section” of each of these blog entries are links to medical literature that you can review, print out, and give to your healthcare providers!

New Case Study: a woman with severely aggresive external Endometriosis

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Sign that reads 175

A newly published study about a 35-year-old woman with a case of crazy-insane-aggressive Endometriosis hit my inbox.  I was going to fit it into a previously-written blog about hysterectomies and Endo or extra-pelvic Endo…but it was so fascinating that I decided to create today’s blog entry.

Initially, this young woman had abdominal surgery to remove her right ovary because of a ruptured ovarian cyst.  She subsequently had three additional surgeries to excise Endometriomas (chocolate cysts) and adenomyosis via a total hysterectomy which also took both of her fallopian tubes and remaining ovary.

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New Case Study: Endo … in the buttcrack

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Buttcrack

(A quick note from me: I cannot believe I get to update this article, originally written in July 2017 – now I get to add to it in July 2021!)…

Can you imagine cutaneous Endometriosis in your rump! Your crack! The behind!?!

A study published online in June 2017’s edition of the Journal of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Human Reproduction discusses a case of Endometriosis in a very peculiar and very extra-pelvic location: the buttcrack!

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Reader’s Choice: Pudendal Nerve Pain

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A diagram of the pudendal nerve in a female human

One of our readers (who shall remain anonymous) asked if we could look into a topic: “Pudendal nerve pain-when is it endo and when is it not? Or is there even a way to know?”  So, here I go off to learn things and hopefully share a bit of that newfound knowledge.  And since this blog entry is Endometriosis-related, I’m going to keep the anatomy female (although men have a pudendal nerve and can also suffer from these symptoms).

Where’s the Pudendal Nerve?

The pudendal nerve is located back by the tailbone, and extends along the pelvic floor and around the pelvis, toward the rectal, gluteal, and clitoris areas.  There’s two: a right and a left pudendal nerve.  One or both pudendal nerves may cause issues, which we’ll get into right now!

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Endometriosis in Rhesus Monkeys

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Baby and adult Rhesus monkeys

In the past, I’ve written about Endometriosis being found in two mandrillus sphinx,  a German Shephard and cynomolgus monkeys.  I know when I think of Endometriosis, I have to remind myself that any person, including cis-men can develop it, as well as animals.  A study hit my inbox this morning about monkeys, rhesus macaques, developing Endometriosis.

The 2017 study published in Primate Biology discusses rhesus macaques (aka rhesus monkeys) that were housed at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands and the New England Primate Research Center in the United States.  Not only did the study discuss the spontaneous development of Endometriosis in these creatures, but it focused on the genetic similarities between humans and these monkeys in the hopes of continuing the studies of finding genetic links to the illness.

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Endometriosis & the Appendix

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Diagram of the appendix

Here I go again, once more intrigued by Endometriosis growing in odd places inside the body.  Today I’m going to focus on the appendix.  I’ve read that many Warriors have their appendix removed because physicians may confuse Endometriosis pain for the symptoms of appendicitis.  But on Tuesday an article hit my email about Endometriosis growing on the appendix…and I became obsessed.

Please remember: I don’t write this to scare you, or freak you out, or say that all of your right-sided abdominal pain is from Appendix Endo.  Take a deep breath – I like to document these things in case anyone would like to discuss it further with their healthcare providers so they may be aware during surgery.  Appendiceal Endometriosis is considered extremely rare and it is suspected that only 1-3% of all cases of Endometriosis involve the appendix.  But…knowledge is power.

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Endometriosis & Perineum

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A starfish on the sand
It’s the only photo I could think of that wasn’t … vulgar

Well, this was a first for me.

I’ve read numerous studies of Endometriosis developing in scar tissue after c-sections or other abdominal surgeries, but this one caught me by such surprise that I wanted to share it with you!  It’s important to any EndoWarriors who may have delivered children naturally and have complaints of pain…”down there.”  Read on!

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New Study: migration of Endometriosis cells throughout the organs of mice

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Small brown mouse

On April 6, 2017, Oncotarget published an article which I’ll be briefly discussing here today.

Researchers took mice and implanted Endometriosis cells inside of of their pelvic regions wanting to see if the Endometriosis cells would migrate to extra-pelvic organs.   They later analyzed the organs for microscopic Endometriosis-derived cells throughout the mice and found that it had migrated to the lungs, spleen, livers, and brains in many of the mice.

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