17 Apr 2016

Endometriosis might be a complex word to some and may even require that one looks it up in the dictionary to understand its meaning.

However to help unravel the mistery behind this word, panellists converged on the University of Botswana recently with the view of trying to shed light on the causes, symptoms as well as share experiences.

On the panel discussion was Dr Bridget Galebole, a gynaecologist at Bridge Women’s Clinic and Bokamoso Private Hospital who described endometriosis as a complex process involving some tissues from the womb that may want to escape to the uterus.

“The tissues are active and cause irritation and pain. Women suffering from endometriosis have enormous pain caused by the irritation from the tissue adhesions and they cannot do much when the pain starts,” said Dr Galebole.

She noted the importance of early diagnosis of endometriosis as it could help in reducing the progression of the condition. She said the condition has four stages which range from mild to extreme while most common symptom of endometriosis was before, during and after menstruation.

She explained that the tissue deposits that were supposed to pass out during menstruation tend to remain inside thereby causing adhesions. “The tissues will then stick together and become hard to separate and this can cause damage to the uterus,” the doctor said.

She continued to say that people do not know that they have endometriosis until they were at the fourth stage of the condition as they start experiencing excruciating pain.

However Dr Galebole highlighted that the pain worsens during menstruation due to the hormonal changes taking place in the body and only eases after menopause, but does not stop.

“Other symptoms of endometriosis are pelvic pain, heavy menstrual flow, painful urination during menstruation periods, lower back and intestinal pains,” Dr Golebole said as she advised that surgery may work better than medicine and drugs and could help slow down the progression on endometriosis.

Explaining it further, Dr Galebole hinted that endometriosis could be hereditary if the mother has it. The doctor urged the public to undergo early diagnosis. “Even though endometriosis affects the ovaries it has not been proven to be a cause for ovarian cancer. Endometriosis itself is not cancerous,” said Dr Galebole.

Thirty five-year-old Ms Primrose Phetwe also shared her experiences. She said she has been living with endometriosis since the age of 19.

The mother of two said she experienced pain on her left ovary to the extent that the ovary ended up being removed.

Ms Phetwe said previously she was wrongly diagnosed and told that she had an STD.

However through a laparoscopy (a surgery procedure used for diagnosing endometriosis) at Princess Marina Hospital, she was able to know that she was at stage four of endometriosis. ENDS