Merry Meet, my sisters, brothers, and your loved ones.
This site is dedicated to my fellow Endo-Sisters, their friends, family and significant others. In hope that this will help bring more awareness to this debilitating disease and avail to all who suffer from this disease, information, treatments and options so they can seek the proper care. Through my personal struggles with this disease, I've learned a few things; Women know their bodies, Doctors don't always have the answers & Life is too short to settle for less.
Knowledge is power! Educate & Empower yourself! ~ ChinaRose, rev. Sept.2008

Endometriosis is a disease which affects millions of women worldwide.  Although it attacks the reproductive system, it can spread throughout the body including the lungs and in very rare cases, the brain. It was once thought to be a "white working woman's disease," but current research shows that it can strike women of all ethnicity's and financial backgrounds in their child bearing years.

The endometriomas is the tissue that lines the inside tissue of the uterine cavity.  Endometriosis is a disease state in which some of this tissue has spread elsewhere, such as the ovaries, or elsewhere in the abdominal cavity. Endometriosis causes pain in some women and can also cause infertility.

The magnitude of endometriosis pain depends in part on where it is and how much you have. A spot (focus) of endometriosis may stay small and relatively inactive for many years. However, even the tiniest implant can cause incapacitating pain if it irritates a nearby nerve. Some women with allot of disease may experience no pain.

Larger implants can become locally invasive as they respond to hormone stimulation. The tissue surrounding the implant can begin to break down and bleed. The body's natural reaction is to try to cover this raw area with scar tissue (also called adhesions). But if active endometriosis becomes trapped beneath adhesions, enormous pain and pressure can result.

A large walled-off area (frequently an ovary) can lose its central blood supply. Then degeneration and destruction of the localized blood can create a cystic mass called an endometriomas. An endometrioma can be quite small, like a BB. They can also grow very large, up to the size of a softball.

Invasion of nearby structures including the bowel, bladder and urethras can occur. Advanced endometriosis can result in pelvises frozen with adhesions. This means that organs designed to float freely within the pelvis are stuck together. Then, any movement of any one of those structures (such as ovarian movements during ovulation, movements during sexual intercourse, or moving material through the bowel) can result in enormous pain.

Although many women with Endometriosis do not experience symptoms, those who do report varying degrees of pain, especially around the time of menstruation when endometrial tissue engorges. Sometimes the pain is felt throughout the pelvic region; other times it is felt in a specific area, for example near the rectum. Other common symptoms of Endometriosis include pain during intercourse, abnormal vaginal bleeding, and heavy menstrual flow.

This question has no universal answer. Some women with advanced-stages have had no pain, and some with minimal disease are incapacitated by pain. Pain is the most common symptom. And there are others. Of course, not every woman has every symptom, but these are the more common ones:

Vascular Theory
This theory holds that the lining of the uterus (the endometrium) moves through the body via blood vessels. It reaches various tissues and then implants and survives.

Immune Deficiency
The body's immune system is in some way defective. A weak immune system may allow endometriosis to develop. Some women with endometriosis have also been found to have unexpectedly high levels of antibodies which attack cells of some of their own organs. Whereas a woman without endometriosis, the body has the ability to fight off the endo implants.

Dr. Koh's Theory - Clip Taken from article found at: http://www.reproductivecenter.com/radical.html
"...Recent studies have confirmed the following. Endometriosis, especially the deep variety, is not related to back flow. Many women have cells derived from the early development of the pelvic organs during embryonic life, which under certain stimulation will grow into endometriosis and deep endometriosis. Endometriosis and deep endometriosis do not react in the same way as uterine lining, nor do they contain estrogen or progesterone receptors in the same quantity. Therefore, hormone stimulation or deprivation has limited influence on the lesions. This means that in many cases, the use of GnRH agonists (Lupron, Synarel, Busarellin) or removal of the ovaries surgically has minimal impact on some endometriosis. Deep endometriosis proliferates and invades without needing estrogen influence most of the time. It has become clear that the treatment of endometriosis can only be effective by radical excision....."

The only way to be sure whether a women has Endometriosis is to perform a surgical procedure called laporoscopy, this allows the surgeon to look inside the abdominal cavity with a narrow scope. Sometimes suspicions of the disease is present based on the woman's history of very painful menstrual cycles, painful intercourse, painful urination, etc. or based on the physical examination of the woman or ultrasound findings. During the laporoscopy if disease is found the surgeon will either use laser or electro-scissors to excise the disease.

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