End Endometriosis

This is a public service announcement.

There's a new study underway to identify genes to make the diagnosis of and cure for endometriosis easier. If you know of anyone with endo, please pass this link on. Juneau Biosciences is looking for women around the world who have been surgically diagnosed. There isn't enough of this kind of research going on for endometriosis. The pervasive attitude is "it's incurable" and "learn to live with it." Why settle?

Help end endo! Spread the word.

Info on study

Marcus said:

Endometriosis is a truely scary sickness.

I was talking with someone at work and his wife has it... His take is that if men got that too, there'd be a cure for it already... I tend to agree with this assessment.

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A very small percentage of men do get it!

It takes an average of about seven years for a woman to be diagnosed. Standard treatment is ineffective drugs to manage pain and repeated surgery. I know women who've had eight or more surgeries, with more in their future. Definitely scary.

CaroGirl said:

How do men get endometriosis? Isn't that like saying a small percentage of women can get prostate cancer? If you ain't go the parts, you can't get the disease. I'd genuinely like to know how men can get endometrial cell build-up on the outside of their womb.

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It's admittedly not quite the same. "Interestingly, scattered case reports exist of lesions that are histologically indistinguishable from endometriosis found in men exposed to high-dose exogenous estrogens." Source

There are several theories about how endometrial lesions end up in the "wrong" place. Sampson's Theory, an old one, attributes it to "retrograde menstruation," which never merged with logic in my mind. There are new theories that it begins as a mix-up of cells in utero, and in women these misplaced cells are activated once menses begins.

Most surgeries for endometriosis burn the lesions to remove them, but the laser can only go so deep before risking damage to the surrounding tissue, organs, and/or nerves, and the burning process leaves behind a carbon residue. Long-term relief with these techniques is rare, and symptoms can persist even have hysterectomy is lesions exist outside of the uterus and ovaries because the disease may also exist elsewhere in the body. Excision (same surgery, different technique) literally cuts the lesions out. It's more precise, allowing the surgeon to go deeper into the tissue to remove all of the lesions. More information here. I had excision three years ago and have had absolutely no endo problems since.

There is an Oxford Gene Study also ongoing, but I haven't heard about ways to participate in that one.