Endometriosis is a painful condition affecting many women, yet often years pass before it’s diagnosed. For Black women, the delay in getting diagnosed is even worse.
Tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus starts growing outside it, often affecting the ovaries, the bowel or tissue lining your pelvis. Cysts or scar tissue can form.
Beyond intense physical pain, endometriosis can affect everything from your mood and self-esteem to your relationships, especially when it disrupts your sex life.
The most serious complication is infertility. Up to half of all women with endometriosis have difficulty getting pregnant, which is often what first brings it to your doctor’s attention.
One reason for the delay in getting medical care is thinking the pain is normal menstrual discomfort and not taking symptoms seriously. The chief clue is intense pelvic pain, often during different circumstances. But keep in mind that the degree of pain doesn’t always correlate with the severity of the endometriosis.
Here are some warning signs of endometriosis:
Having a mother, sister or daughter with endometriosis, starting your period before age 11 or after age 14, having heavy periods lasting more than one week or having monthly cycles fewer than 27 days apart are also risk factors for the condition.
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, it is time to see a doctor. A doctor can often diagnose endometriosis with an ultrasound.
“They’ll move the ultrasound around in such a way to see if organs are stuck together, which can happen with endometriosis,” Dr. Kristin Riley ,
chief of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery at Penn State Health in Hershey, said in a Penn State news release. “Or when they push in certain places, is it painful to the patient? That can be helpful. And sometimes with an ultrasound, you can see a big cyst of endometriosis on an ovary — that’s called an endometrioma.”
An MRI or CT scan may also reveal endometriosis in the abdominal wall.
“That’s caused when endometrial tissue is transplanted there from a surgery, most commonly from