Endometriosis

I will be including some discussions I've had regarding several illnesses with patients through a health forum. These individuals were kind enough to allow me to share their stories for the benefits of others. This first discussion is on endometriosis.

Hi DrM,

I've been suffering with endometriosis (endo) for more than 10 years. I have undergone 3 major surgery to remove cycst. :( . The cycst appeared on both of my ovaries. Luckily, the gynae managed to save them both from being removed. According to the gynae, the size was as big as an orange.

I'm 37 years old, married for 7 years but no kids and desperately trying to conceive...
my hubby and I have been trying to concieve but unfortunately it did not successful.... :'(
We have tried IUI ( 2 Times), IVF (4 times) but failed.

I have done ultrasound last month and the results shows that the cycst on my left ovary is 40mm and no cycst appear on the right ovary. I am planning to do IVF very soon and seek medical advice from several gynae. However, different gynae gives different opinion. One of them suggest to perform another surgery in ensuring that all cycst is cleared prior to perform IVF. While another gynae suggest to have the cycst aspirated vaginally i.e. using similar IVF method in retriving eggs. Currently, I am not sure what my decision will be... too afraid to go for another surgery. If possible I would swallow anything that can remove this cycst.

Currently, I'm not taking any meds. One of my gynae suggest to take planning pills but i have done that previously, it didn't work... the size of the cycst won't budge..

I have mild asthma and bad migrane. Recently, I have done blood screening test at BP lab and found out that my haematology examination havind slight problem in which MCV is 70fl, MCH is 21pg and MCHC is 30%. The doctor indicated that I probably having thalassaemia and suggest to perform Hgb electrophoresis. However,I have not done it yet.

My father has high blood presurre while my mother has diabetic and severe migraine.

Therefore, I am kindly seeking your advice on this matter.

Thanks...

REPLY:

Thank you for your enquiry. I read your story with great interest and sympathy. You have gone through a lot and you seem to be a very strong and determined person.

As you may not have much time with your doctor to go over things I am sure you must have read and know quite a lot about endometriosis. However, it may be helpful to go over it from a different perspective.

The symptoms you are exhibiting (including the migraine) are symptoms of estrogen dominance. Estrogen is essential for living but can lead to problems if it is unbalanced. The result of too much estrogen relative to progesterone is estrogen dominance. It is the chief cause of PMS, fibroids, endometriosis, Polycystic ovary syndrome and infertility. Under the influence of too much estrogen women feel bloated, irritable, fatigued and have sugar cravings. All these estrogenic effects are supposed to be balanced by progesterone but are often not.

Endometriosis is a very difficult condition to treat and even modern medical technology have not found the ultimate treatment for it. In actual fact we do not know why endometriosis occurs. We know that there is deposits of endometrial tissue in sites other than the uterine wall and there are many theories to speculate how it occurs. However, looking through the history of this illness, it was not mentioned in the olden days. We now believe that there is a relationship between endometriosis and environmental toxins especially from petrochemical products such as plastic, processed food, animal growth hormone and even contaminated water. Petrochemicals contain harmful substanses and many of which act like the hormone estrogen but in a bad way (Xeno-estrogens) and lead to aggravation of endometriosis.

Some studies have also shown that women with endometriosis have antibodies against their own tissue. I equate this state to a confused immune system which attacks its own tissue. Therefore a healthy immune system is also important to fight this illness.

With each monthly cycle, the endometriosis spots responds to ovarian hormones just as the endometrial cells do within the uterus- they increase in size, swell with blood and bleed into surrounding tissue during menstruation. The bleeding (no matter how small) into the surrounding tissue causes inflammation and is very painful, often disabling. Symptoms usually begin 7 to 12 days before menses and become excruciatingly painful during menstruation.

Women with endometriosis often have problems to conceive as a result of inflammation and scarring. We have found that in those who get pregnant, endometriosis is retarded and occasionally cured. This is a result of the high levels of the hormone progesterone. You may have received a progesteron-like medicine from you gyne (provera, norethisterone etc). however, these are progesterone-like (chemical form) and not natural progesterone. The body does not process this progesterone the same way.


My recommendations for management of your condition:

1. I feel that you may benefit from Natural Progesterne (in the form of a cream) in a cyclical manner to control the endometriosis. It is important to use natural, bioidentical progesterone instead of progestins.

2. On top of this, the Usana Vitamins will help you as follows:
i) USANA Essentials Multivitamin, Mineral and Antioxidant (1 tablet 3x/day)
Dian Mills, a nutritionist and former trustee of the British Endometriosis Society in London, reported a double-blind study of dietary supplements that resulted in a 98% improvement in symptoms over those not on supplement. The supplements used were thiamine, riboflavin, pyridoxine, zinc and magnesium. (D.Mills, "The Nutritional Status of the Endometriosis Patient", Endometriosis Association Newsletter, Vol.17, nos.5-6 (1996))

ii) USANA Proflavanol (1 Tablet 3x/day)
Proflavanol contains grape seed extract a potent antioxidant and a potent stimulator of the immune system.

iii) USANA Biomega (1 tablet 2-3 times/day)
Omega 3 fatty acids have been shown to reduce inflammation.

iv) USANA Active Calcium (2 tablets 3x/day - introduced gradually)
Calcium has muscle relaxing effects and have been shown to relieve menstrual cramps

Dr Ray Strand, Author of "What your Doctor doesn't know about nutritional medicine may be killing you" has had success in many patients using the USANA Vitamins.

3. Indole-3-carbinol or DIM
As mentioned previously, endometriosis is related to estrogen dominance or excess. Indole-3-carbinol/DIM is the active ingredient of cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower etc) which have been shown to modulate estrogen levels.

4. Increase intake of soy and soy products (tempeh, tofu, etc) which contain the substance genestien, another potent estrogen modulator. You may want to try Enerflex forte which is in powder form with the added benefit of blue green algae.

5. Eliminate caffeine

6. Eliminate red meat, dairy foods, and egg yolk for 2 weeks. You may then reintroduce these one by one and see if symptoms recur.
Dr Christiane Northrup M.D, reported patients who became free of endometriosis after eliminating dairy products.


With nutritional approaches, it's important to give them at least 3 months to achieve optimum results.

Other than these measures, keep yourself active with exercise which will also boost your immune system. You will find that your asthma and migraine will also be controlled.