Source: wbaltv.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BALTIMORE \u2014<\/strong>For some women, painful periods are a given, but there could also be a bigger issue: Studies show at least one in 10 women has endometriosis but has yet to be diagnosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “That was probably back when I was maybe like 14 or so, I was having some pretty bad periods and everything like that. At that time, you pretty much thought that that was the norm,” said patient Megan Sennett<\/p>\n\n\n\n Endometriosis occurs when tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It\u2019s insidious. It goes in many different places. It is all-encompassing, and unfortunately, it comes back,” said Dr. Kevin Audlin, director of the endometriosis center at Mercy Medical Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Sennett, the symptoms started to affect her everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “When you become kind of a hermit during those first few days, you\u2019re like, ‘OK, something\u2019s just not quite right,'” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Audlin said the symptoms are hard to pinpoint at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They are very vague, and that\u2019s the biggest problem. We know that conservatively 10% of all pre-menopausal woman have endometriosis, but all women that are pre-menopausal have cycles for the most part, so why do only 10% get the disease?” Audlin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Endometriosis mainly impacts a woman during her reproductive years but can start as soon as a girl gets her period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The assumption is that bleeding from this causes the retrograde menstruation into the pelvis — the less you bleed, the less likelihood you\u2019re going to have of endometriosis,” Audlin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Audlin said treatment starts with managing a woman\u2019s hormones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Currently, I\u2019m on birth control. I actually have the Mirena IUD. That actually helps prevent my periods and helps me prevent from any pains, discomfort, things like that,” Semmett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surgery is a more advanced treatment. To help manage the disease, women can focus on living a healthy lifestyle, including diet and exercise, quit smoking and get a lot of sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: wbaltv.com BALTIMORE \u2014For some women, painful periods are a given, but there could also be a bigger issue: Studies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1364,149,191,389,1363,113],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bigger-issue","tag-diagnosed","tag-doctor","tag-endometriosis","tag-painful-periods","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\n