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When Life Is a Pain

The Facts on Endometriosis

By Carma Haley

Endometriosis affects approximately one in every 20 women in the United States, according to the National Organization of Obstetric and Gynecologic Medicine. As the condition of endometriosis can cause extreme discomfort, these women live with repeated cycles of pain that affect their everyday lives, their time with their families, their jobs and even their ability to conceive a child.

What is endometriosis? Why is it so painful and how does it affect a woman's ability to have a child? These answers are not simple ones, but to women who suffer from endometriosis – and its complications – these answers are needed so desperately, it pains the heart as well.

According to Dr. David Michael, faculty specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago, Ill., endometriosis is "the presence of functioning endometrial glands (the glands that normally line the uterus which produce tissue that prepares the uterus for conception) that occurs outside the uterine cavity. These glands can be located anywhere inside the abdominal cavity or attached to the organs within."

The areas inside the abdominal cavity that can be affected by endometriosis include the abdominal wall, kidneys, ovaries, bladder, fallopian tubes, the outside of the uterus itself or even the areas in between these organs, which are referred to as "cul-de-sacs."

"Since endometriosis spreads by local means, it will end up in the most dependent parts of the woman's abdomen – wherever gravity is going to pull to the lowest point," says Dr. Michael.

As mentioned, endometriosis causes great discomfort to those women it affects. The pain can prohibit everyday activities as well as a woman's ability to work outside the home. "Due to my endometriosis I was bed ridden for at least two days every month," says Sharon Hector, a Web designer from Silver Spring, Md. "I would be literally crawling to the bathroom to vomit with hot bags on my lower abdominal area. I lived on painkillers just to make it through."

Want to see more?

• Safeguard Your Fertility: 6 Simple Steps
• Making Sense of PCOS: Answers to Common Questions
• The Painful Truth: Living With Endometriosis
• Talk about it!