Endometriosis Excision Specialist in San Francisco Bay Area, California
Why Is It Often So Painful?
Unlike normal endometrial-like cells found in the lining of the uterus, these errant endometriotic growths do not get expelled from your body each month as a period. Instead, they implant and begin reacting to the monthly hormones that trigger menstruation, causing them to bleed and shed and grow, month after month and year after year if left untreated. Although these endometriotic growths are benign (not cancer), it appears that the body still recognizes that they shouldn’t be growing outside of the uterus, and therefore usually launches an inflammatory response in order to try to destroy them. As a result, the affected areas become extremely inflamed and therefore potentially extremely painful. This chronic pro-inflammatory environment eventually leads to elevated cytokine-prostaglandin levels which contribute to the chronic pain. Blood and pus-filled endometriotic cysts may also form, which can become twisted (called torsion) and/or burst open and cause still more pain, bleeding, infection, and another cascade of acute inflammatory responses. Endometriosis can also grow directly onto nerves, which can cause excruciating pain, similar to the way that the nerve-invading disorder shingles does.
As mentioned, it also appears that endometriotic growths can generate their own supply of blood vessels and nerves, which increases the number of pain receptors and therefore contributes to heightened pain responses. Eventually, scar tissue and other symptoms of endometriosis develop. In fact, scar tissue itself can cause severe pain. For example, in cases when endometriosis has invaded the ureters, scar tissue can cause these organs to close up (constrict), which can lead to severe kidney infections and an inability to completely void when urinating. Bowel endometriosis, on the other hand, can cause severe bowel obstructions and/or tiny perforations (holes), allowing the contents of the bowel to leak out into the pelvic cavity, which can cause an extremely painful, life-threatening medical emergency. In severe cases endometriosis can even completely destroy organs. For example, while most know that endometriosis can totally destroy the ovaries, in rare cases some women have even lost a kidney due to this confounding disorder.
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Please email us at office@camrannezhatinstitute.com for your questions about Endometriosis.