The Many Ways That Endometriosis Can Affect Your Life

Despite being one of the most common gynecologic conditions in women — affecting about 11% of women ages 15-44 — endometriosis takes 4-11 years to be diagnosed correctly. That’s largely due to the wide range of symptoms that may be mistaken for other conditions. 

March is Endometriosis Awareness Month, so the team at Bayard Street Obstetrics & Gynecology is using this blog to do our part to shorten that 4- to 11-year diagnostic window. Our goal is to help women recognize the signs so they can get the help they need to navigate the often challenging world of endometriosis.

A quick word about endometriosis

To understand why endometriosis can lead to a wide range of symptoms, we need to first explain the condition in more detail. 

Your uterus features a lining called the endometrium, which provides a home and nourishment for embryos. When no fertilized egg arrives, this endometrium sheds out with your period each month so that it can set up for the next menstrual cycle. By the end of the reproductive years, most women go through this shedding cycle about 400 times.

With endometriosis, the cells and tissues that normally line your uterus grow outside of the organ, often attaching to surrounding organs and support tissues. The problem lies in the fact that these endometrial tissues still respond to your menstrual cycles and thicken and grow, but they can’t shed out. 

They remain in your pelvic or abdominal cavity, often as inflamed scar tissue (adhesions), where they can create issues in terms of comfort and function that can affect your life in many ways.

Common signs of endometriosis

Your pelvis and lower abdomen house a number of different systems, including your lower digestive tract, your reproductive organs, and your urinary tract. This means that endometrial tissues can attach to any of these areas and create problems, such as:

Pelvic pain

When endometrial tissues respond to hormone fluctuations, they can become inflamed, which can make your periods far more painful. And as endometriosis grows, you can experience pelvic pain during your periods and in between, as well.

Pain during sex

Adhesions from endometriosis often collect in your cul de sac, which is a space that separates your bowel from your uterus. When this happens, intercourse can become painful because these adhesions prevent mobility and elasticity in your vagina. By the numbers, at least half of women with endometriosis experience painful sex.

Painful bowel movements

If endometrial tissues attach to your bowel or rectum, bowel movements can become painful.

Digestive issues

Endometrial adhesions can often develop around your lower digestive tract, which is why many women with endometriosis experience gastrointestinal symptoms, such as bloating, constipation, stomach upset, and diarrhea.  

Infertility

Between 30% and 50% of women with endometriosis experience infertility thanks to adhesions that disrupt the fertilization process. For example, endometrial adhesions can attach to your ovaries or fallopian tubes where they disrupt ovulation and the travel of your eggs.

Getting the right help for endometriosis

From our team’s perspective, each of the side effects we outline above warrants investigation on its own, but if you can check more than one box, it’s definitely time to come see us. Our experience with endometriosis allows us to diagnose our patients sooner so we can get them on the road to relief more quickly. 

Treatments for endometriosis vary and depend upon your goals. In many cases, hormone therapies work very well in controlling the growth of your endometriosis and improving symptoms.

If you're trying to get pregnant, however, hormone therapies won’t work. Instead, we might recommend surgery to remove any adhesions that are causing problems with your fertility.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s stop here so that you can take the next step, which is arranging to come in for a comprehensive endometriosis evaluation.

To get that ball rolling, please contact Bayard Street Obstetrics & Gynecology to schedule an appointment at one of our offices in lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, Flushing, Queens, or Syosset, New York.