Endometriosis
Imagine a young woman about 14 years old waking up in the middle of the night with a horrible pain in her abdomen. So painful all she can do is roll up in a little ball in the corner of the room and cry. When she tries to stand to go to the restroom it feels as if all of the blood in her body rushes out of her and she passes out. When she comes too she runs to the restroom to throw up, then to use the restroom, she realizes that she is losing a tremendous amount of blood and has clots the size of quarters. She knows this is no regular menstrual cycle and yells for her mom. After telling her mother what happened they went up to the emergency room. After thorough inspection the physician diagnoses the girl with …show more content…
After a year of going through the same pain and many visits to the hospital and doctors they finally figured out what the problem was... endometriosis. You may ask, what is endometriosis? Endometriosis is a condition when the endometrial tissue, which is the inside lining of the uterus, is located outside of the uterus. Endometriosis broken down into its prefix, root, and suffix is: (prefix) endo- within, (root) metri/o uterus, (suffix) –osis abnormal condition. So it is an abnormal condition within the uterus. Some of the areas that the endometrial tissue can grow are usually around the pelvic area including the ovaries, bowels, bladder and rectum, but can spread farther in some cases. About 5-10% of women has or has been diagnosed with this condition and all of them during their reproductive years. …show more content…
Some common more universal symptoms include constipation, chronic fatigue, back pain, premenstrual spotting, hypoglycemia, depression, headache, extreme pain in legs and thighs, and many more. The amount of pain and symptoms isn’t related to the extent of the endometriosis. It is possible to have stage 4 endometriosis and have no pain or symptoms whatsoever, or have a stage 1 and have extreme pain and many symptoms. Although the most pain is associated with menses making women with endometriosis dread their period, pain is still possible at other times during the month such as the time of ovulation, pain because of inflammation, pain with bowel movements, and pain with over exertion (during exercise or intercourse). Though there is no cure for endometriosis in many instances it diminishes after menopause. Although if your merely a 14 year old girl menopause would seem like a century to deal with the agonizing pain of endometriosis. It sure is a good thing that it can be at least managed. The goals to manage endometriosis is to provide the patient with pain relief, to restore or preserve fertility where and if needed, and to restrict progression of the process. If you are a young woman