New Treatment for Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a common disease that affects women of childbearing age and is the most common reason for women to have their ovaries removed. Endometriosis is hard to describe, but it is implants of the same tissue that normally lines the uterus and bleeds monthly for a period, but it is found in the wrong place—on the outside of the uterus, tubes and ovaries, and the intestines. When this tissue is located in the abdomen, without the protection of the uterus, it swells and bleeds monthly causing intra-abdominal bleeding experienced as severe abdominal pain. This tissue also excretes estrogens and prostaglandins that cause inflammation and prevent pregnancy. Eventually, these implants cause scarring of the tubes, uterus and the bowel that causes pain other than during a period.