Research Studies

Chronic pain affects your brain

| Bloomin' Uterus
drawing of a human brain in a jar

So a lot of people with Endometriosis suffer from chronic pain…hell, a lot of people without Endometriosis suffer from chronic pain.  There are theories and studies out there that suggest chronic pain affects memory, cognitive function, and mental health.  Not only does Endometriosis present painful symptoms, but it’s also incurable.  And there are many people who do not get any symptom-relief from any of the treatments available.  You can see where this may cause some “mental health” issues.  Here’s some interesting tidbits on how pain affects brain activity and function.

What is gray matter all about?  It maintains memory, sight, hearing, emotions, speech, impulse control, and executive functions (reasoning, problem solving, cognitive functions, etc.).  Gray matter volume naturally decreases with age.  So…it happens naturally.  Chronic pain may just spur it along a bit more.  Studies have indicated that children who suffer from chronic pain have a greater loss of gray matter volume when they are adults.

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Reader’s Choice : Oophorectomy & Endometriosis

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A plushy ovary by I Heart Guts
Plushy ovary available on iheartguts.com

When I was getting ready to get wheeled into the Operating Room back in 2014 for my cystectomy, my Doc tells me that if he gets in there and there’s extensive damage, he may need to perform an oophorectomy (pronounced oh-uh-fuh–rek-tuh-mee).  I signed the permission slip/waiver without blinking and off we went.  Luckily, he didn’t have to perform one.  And this turned out to be my Endo diagnostic surgery.  Quite the day.

One of our readers & fellow blogger, SnowDroplets, asked the other day if I could look into the pros & cons of oophorectomies, when to have them, and hormone replacement therapy after the ovary(ies) is removed (especially how it may affect with with Endo).  You know how I love to learn about new things, so here goes!  And thank you, SnowDroplets, for asking this question.  I learned A LOT today.

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Blood Biomarkers & Endometriosis

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Test tubes full of blood

You may have read some of my previous blogs about biomarkers…blood tests for things which may help doctors diagnose Endometriosis without surgery, such as CA-125 levels.  There are a lot of hopes that indicators may help save costly diagnostic surgeries, surgical risks, and painful recoveries.

A study published on May 1, 2016, reviewed 141 past studies and analyzed the data.

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Inflammation & Endo

| Bloomin' Uterus
Inflamed Bloomin' Uterus logo. It looks bloated and swollen

The Oxford Dictionary defines inflammation as, “a localized physical condition in which part of the body becomes reddened, swollen, hot, and often painful, especially as a reaction to injury and infection.”

An article which is slated to be published in June 2016’s Frontiers in Bioscience reviews previous studies and literature which discuss how inflammation may cause Endometriosis to develop.  It states, “…inflammation is crucial in the pathogenesis of endometriosis…” Pathogenesis is the development of a disease; the cellular events and mechanisms that lead to a disease.

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Reader’s Choice : Endometriosis & Bipolar Disorder

| Bloomin' Uterus
Drama masks

I was contacted by one of our readers who shall remain anonymous.  She suffers from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and Bipolar Disorder.  Her OBGYN suspects she has Endometriosis; however, she had to return to college out-of-state and wasn’t able to have her diagnostic surgery.  In the meantime, her physician is encouraging her to remain on birth control pills to suppress the possible Endo symptoms.  Her symptoms are worsening…

She had heard that there may be a link between Endometriosis and Bipolar Disorder, and that it may be difficult to treat both at the same time due to complications with the medications interacting with each other, or even cancelling the medicinal effects of the pills.

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Endometriosis & Iron Levels

| Bloomin' Uterus
two iron dumbbells
(…no, not that kind of iron)

So, if you’re reading this you probably already know a little bit about Endometriosis.  Recently at our support group meeting, the question of iron levels and anemia came up.   With all that bleeding, can we suffer from anemia or an iron deficiency?

And, again, the topic of iron levels and Endo came up at our Endometriosis Awareness & Support Walk: could the blood left in my pelvic region from shedding Endo have caused the “abnormally high” iron levels during a blood test?

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Endometriosis & The Bowel

| Bloomin' Uterus
Diagram of human bowels

As you may know, Endometriosis is not limited to just your reproductive bits & pieces.  It can implant, grow, and fester in many places; the bowel included.  But what does that mean? How do you know if it’s on your bowel?  Today’s blog will go into that…Read on, dear Reader…read on.  Word of warning : I will be using words like fart and poop! Why dance around the subject with flowery words when I feel like I’m a giggly 12-year-old girl?

It is estimated that between 5-15% (and some even doctors guess it’s actually between 3-34%) of women with Endometriosis suffer from Endo on their bowels.  Bowel Endometriosis may affect the colon, the rectum, the large intestine, the small intestine, the colon, or the sigmoid colon.  The implants may be physically located on the bowels, or even just located adjacent to them in areas like the Pouch of Douglas, uterosacral ligaments, or rectovaginal septum. The close proximity of the inflamed and irritated lesions may be enough to induce bowel Endometriosis symptoms.  And these symptoms may also be caused by adhesions pulling or twisting the bowels.

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Silent Endometriosis

| Bloomin' Uterus
Woman holding her index finger to her lips to shhh someone

There are many usual signs and symptoms of Endometriosis.  If you suffer from this disease, you know them all too well. One of our readers, Tanya, let us know that she suffers from “Silent Endometriosis.”  What’s that?  She has an official Endometriosis diagnosis, but only some of the symptoms associated with Endometriosis.  Some people with Silent Endo don’t have any Endo symptoms (this is known as asymptomatic Endometriosis). Does that make her any less of an Endo sufferer? No, not at all.  She suffers from the same invasive disease as the rest of us.  Just in a different way.

A whole slew of questions were raised, which we’ll look into:

  1. Why do some people present with classic symptoms like crippling pain and some don’t?
  2. And, given that silent endometriosis exists, this makes me wonder if the overall incidents of endometriosis is higher than is usually quoted. How many have this disease and have no idea?
  3. Since the symptoms don’t present as normal in silent endometriosis, what are some of the other signs that people possibly facing this condition can look out for?
  4. Why do some patients who are riddled with endometriosis have no pain, and others with very little endometriosis have excruciating pain?
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Frozen Embryo Transfers & Endometriosis

| Bloomin' Uterus
Frozen embryo transfer medical tubes

A lot of people have trouble becoming pregnant, whether or not they have Endometriosis.  The question has been raised : if you have Endometriosis and are undergoing frozen embryo transfer (FET), which treatment regimens and protocols have the highest successful pregnancy rate?

I myself have never considered IVF and had to do a bit of initial research on the differences between fresh and frozen embryos, IVF, etc.  I am so grateful an EndoWarrior asked this question; brought this struggle to my attention.  So if you already know about these, please bear with me as I learn.  Otherwise, skip passed these first few categories to the knitty gritty below 🙂

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