About 180 million women around the world suffer from endometriosis, an incurable gynecological disease that causes infertility in 25 to 50 percent of cases. However, this pathology that often occurs during adolescence and takes years to be diagnosed is not treated because endometriosis is a too less known disease and often goes asymptomatic.
Endometriosis may lead to heavy bleeding and infertility
180 million women around the world are affected, yet it is still an unknown disease to the general public.
This pathology results from the malfunctioning of the endometrium, the tissue that lines the uterus. Usually, during the menstrual cycle, the endometrium thickens for potential pregnancy and if there is no fertilization, disintegrates and bleeds, which causes the menstruation.
But in some women, the endometrial tissue and the blood take the opposite way back to the fallopian tubes, to extend into the abdominal cavity to the urinary, digestive, and sometimes even pulmonary systems.
This migration then causes internal lesions, heavy bleeding, and very severe pain.
Endometriosis is an incurable chronic gynecological disease that affects more than one in ten women of reproductive age and causes infertility in 25-50% of cases.
The endometriosis symptoms
The mechanisms that lead to endometriosis remain poorly understood. Several theories exist to explain the onset of this disease, none of which fully explain all forms of the disease.
The symptoms vary very much from one woman to another, that we talk about several endometriosis types.
Endometriosis is first manifested by very strong pelvic and abdominal pain at the time of menstruation. Then it almost always causes disorders that are initially quite light and become more intense, sometimes intolerable.
At the beginning of the illness, the pain occurs mainly during menstruation or only in particular situations, for example after intercourse, during urination or defecation. Another manifestation of endometriosis is the severe pain experienced during sexual intercourse.
Often, the disease remains silent (asymptomatic) for a long time and is diagnosed only when a woman fails to conceive a child.
In conclusion, endometriosis is an unknown gynecological disease that affects about 180 million women around the world and which can lead to internal lesions, heavy bleeding, and infertility in 25-50% of the cases.
