Why is endometriosis an important problem?
A common disease in women, endometriosis can cause debilitating pelvic pain, resulting in difficulty with sexual intercourse and in infertility. It also causes frequent work absences in a woman who may be at the peak of her professional career. Thus, it can have significant emotional and practical consequences.
What is endometriosis?
The lining of a woman's uterus is called the endometrium. Endometriosis is a disease in which tissue that resembles this lining grows outside the woman's uterus, usually in the pelvis. The tissue takes two main forms. It can occur as large ovarian cysts, called "chocolate" cysts due to the thick, brown fluid they contain. Also, it can occur as implants of endometrial-like glands, usually surrounded by scar tissue on and inside the pelvic organs.
What are its affects?
Endometriosis causes a variety of symptoms, depending on its location and extent. The typical symptoms are pelvic pain before and during the menstrual period (dysmenorrhea), painful sexual intercourse (dyspareunia), and infertility. Endometriosis can also cause bowel and bladder problems if the lesions are present on the intestines or the bladder.
Who is affected?
Ten to fifteen out of every one hundred women have the disease in varying degrees. It affects all ethnic groups, but the highest incidence is among Asian women. Women whose mother or sister has endometriosis are also at increased risk, and as many as 25 to 35 percent of infertile women have endometriosis.
How is it diagnosed and treated?
Currently, surgery is the main method of diagnosis and treatment. This involves the removal or destruction of the endometriosis by means of surgical cutting or by burning with electrocautery or laser. Non-surgical endocrine therapies have also been developed, as certain hormones are also known to affect endometriosis.
What is the role of endocrinology?
Endocrine therapies have been developed to suppress the growth of endometriosis. These hormone treatments use progestins, estrogen-progestin combinations (birth control pills), or danocrine, a hormone resembling testosterone. The newest addition to the endocrine therapies is a class of medication called GnRH analogs, which suppress ovarian hormone, thereby shrinking the endometriosis tissues and reducing the physical symptoms. These new treatments are available as injections or in a nasal spray.
Endocrine research is currently seeking non-surgical methods of diagnosing endometrosis by means of "markers" that circulate in the blood. Research is also focused on developing new treatments consisting of hormonal preparations with more pronounced and long-lasting effects. Future research will focus on how endometriosis produces pain and infertility and on developing more specific treatments.
source; http://www.endo-society.org/pubaffai/factshee/endometr.htm (Revised 1998)
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