WHAT IS ENDOMETRIOSIS?

Endometriosis is the presence of endometrium, which is the inner lining of the uterus found outside the uterus, such as in the fallopian tubes, ovaries, bowel, bladder, stomach, fats, skin, lungs, and brain.

There are two possible reasons of why it happens, which are;

1. Being born with it. There are cases reported where babies are born with endometriosis but without hormones, so it is suppressed temporarily.

2. Period blood backflow. This happens when the period blood does not flow out through the vagina, but instead, it flows into the abdominal cavity via the tubes. The female hormones that stimulate the endometrium in the uterus which is responsible for the discharge of the period blood, is also responsible for the growth of endometriosis. This means that, as long as women menstruation, the tendency to develop endometriosis is always there.

Does pregnancy help?

Yes. Because during pregnancy and lactation, there are no hormones stimulating the endometrium, thus no menstruation. But it is just temporary, because once the hormones and menses are back, the risk of developing endometriosis is also back.

Endometriosis is common in women nowadays because women now spend most of their fertile phase menstruating. It was not common back then because women in the past spent most of their fertile phase getting pregnant and breastfeeding so the hormones responsible for endometriosis were suppressed. The difference is quite big to compare as women in the past typically menstruate 30 to 50 cycles throughout their life, while women nowadays menstruate 300 to 400 cycles on average.

So if a woman happens to have endometriosis since birth, it is suppressed until she starts menstruating. Once she starts having menses, the endometriosis will be active and will start to grow bigger and spread further during each menstrual cycle.

For a woman who has backflow of menstrual blood, it tends to happen 300 to 400 times throughout her lifetime. Frequent backflow of the blood is the cause of a cystformation, and thus developing more and more endometriosis.

One concept that women with endometriosis should hold to is, menses is their enemy. The concept that women should be having menstruation every month is actually wrong. It is wrong because women are not supposed to have menses every month, they are supposed to be pregnant and breastfeeding continuously. That was what nature meant for women to be.