Imagine now what happens every month when endometrial tissue, existing outside its normal environment, responds according to its nature. The vulnerable endometrial implants outside the uterus react to the surge of estrogen and progesterone. The tissue thickens and bleeds, as if it were growing in the uterus, but, unlike menstrual blood, it has no way to exit the body. The implants can enlarge and then ding to organs.

If the endometrial masses are not located near nerve endings, they may not cause pain. Endometriosis has been found in women who were pain-free and functioning normally, but who were suffering from other problems, such as uterine fibroids or infertility. About 30 percent of women with endometriosis have no oven symptoms and find out only incidentally that they have the disease. If the implants grow near nerve endings, however, a woman life can be made miserable. Seventy percent of endometriosis victims may begin feeling pain about two weeks prior to and continuing into menstruation. Overwhelming damage can be done to organs bound with endometrial masses in both symptomatic and asymptomatic sufferers.

The most frequent complaint that leads me to suspect endometriosis in a patient is dysmenorrhea, or painful menstruation. Many women with endometriosis tell of long histories of menstrual distress, most specifically heavy menstrual flow accompanied by severe cramping. Backache and/or deep abdominal pain on either side of the body may indicate engorgement of blood in exiled endometrial tissue on the bowels or ovaries.

Dyspareunia, or painful intercourse, is yet another serious problem. Endometrial lesions, especially when they are trapped and growing in the cul-de-sac, can push the uterus into a retroverted position. Retroversion is a tilting back of the uterus. When the uterus is thus pulled out of its normal position, deep vaginal penetration during intercourse can be extremely painful.

Rectal bleeding, the need to urinate frequently, or blood in the urine during menstruation can also indicate endometriosis. Furthermore, if a woman feels pain radiating from her buttocks to the outside of her legs, her sciatic nerve may be affected. Vomiting and abdominal swelling may implicate the involvement of the small intestine. Finally, infertility, which may strike up to 75 percent of all women who have endometriosis, is directly linked to this disease.

Because endometriosis is so variable in nature, a small implant may cause greater suffering than a larger mass. In either case, physical pain from endometriosis does not exist in a Vacuum. This physical pain generally results in a life-changing state of emotional distress, a devastating side effect made worse by the belief among others—doctors, family, friends—that the pain does not, in fact, exist.

Pelvic pain can become an overwhelming entity in itself.

*14\43\4*

What causes endometriosis

Many naturopaths see endometriosis as a complex condition and causes include inherited predispositions, possible congestion of the lymphatic glands, mineral and other biochemical imbalances, subsequent adhesions or scarring and hormonal factors. They stress that each woman needs individual treatment.

Medical science has not yet discovered why the endometrial tissue is found both within and outside the peritoneal cavity in some women, nor why it develops metaplastic changes in both the uterus and other organs of the pelvic cavity.

Naturopaths, especially those trained in homoeopathic theory, understand that the tissue changes involved with endometriosis have a number of predisposing factors and these include inherited predispositions which homoeopaths call miasms.

This inherited predisposition towards overgrowth of tissue is caused by infectious pelvic disease in the family tree which is often unknown by relatives as it may come from several generations back. This particular factor is responsible for the development of cysts in the uterus and other associated pelvic tissues and is always an indication for supplementation with calcium phosphate in an easily assimilated form.

What type of woman do you treat

Most clients come for treatment having already undergone a surgical exploration which has demonstrated the presence of endometriosis in various parts of the pelvic cavity. We treat people at all stages of the disorder and during the first interview I make it plain that the treatment may need to be continued for up to two years.

Can alternative medicine cure pain

Pain is usually the first symptom to disappear. Many practitioners say it is frustrating when a woman discontinues treatment because the pain has stopped. They see that as the beginning of treatment — not the end.

What is your success rate in treating infertility

My success rate is about 80%. Women usually continue their treatment throughout pregnancy as there are no dangers in using natural remedies during pregnancy. The few herbs which should be discontinued during pregnancy are well known to those trained adequately in herbal medicine.

How do you treat hormonal problems

The hormonal factors are treated by particular herbs. Herbs are also used for lymphatic congestion and to tone up the nervous system. Treatment will include vitamins, minerals, herbs, homoeopathic remedies and flower essences for balancing emotions and nerves.

Does diet plays an important role

Environmental factors contributing to the problem will include poor diet which results in mineral deficiencies; if your diet includes too much junk food, this can burden the lymphatic system with waste. Good nutritional advice and help in the selection of correct food is essential.

Is zinc important

One of the main problems associated with endometriosis involves the formation of adhesions of the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes and bowel. Zinc in a suitable form is given to resolve or prevent adhesions. It should be stressed that the zinc and calcium used by natural therapists often differs from that prepared by the average pharmaceutical company. Our products are often prepared in a special way so they can be absorbed easily and they are used in a form which prevents side-effects.

What does a consultation cost

The cost of treatment for an average patient attending once a month, including remedies is around $80.1 use iridology to assist with the diagnosis; during the first visit — which lasts about half an hour — I take a comprehensive case history.

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It is generally believed that the beneficial effects of pregnancy on endometriosis are due to the high levels of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone that are present in the body during pregnancy. It is thought that these hormones suppress the growth and development of the endometrial implants causing them to gradually degenerate and waste away. The effects may also be due to the lack of regular menstruation during pregnancy.

During the first few months of pregnancy some women experience a worsening of their symptoms and an enlargement of their implants and cysts. In these cases it is thought that the high levels of oestrogen and progesterone cause an initial stimulation of the growth of the endometrial implants during the early months of pregnancy.

For most women the beneficial effects are only temporary.

The majority of women — at least 50% or 60% — will experience a recurrence of their disease and its symptoms within five years.

Some women are able to lengthen the time of their remission by breastfeeding as endometriosis will usually stay in remission if ovulation is suppressed by regular breastfeeding.

Unfortunately, if you have had trouble conceiving, having a successful pregnancy does not necessarily mean that you will be able to conceive again. Many women with fertility problems due to endometriosis are not able to become pregnant a second time regardless of whether their endometriosis recurs or not. To-date, the medical profession has no theories as to why this is so.

*24\83\2*

The kits are available from most chemists and come with full instructions. They are very easy to use and the instructions tell you when to start testing, depending on the length of your cycle. For example, if you have a 28-day cycle then the first day of testing is day 11. There are usually five dipsticks in a kit and the recommendation is to keep testing until the LH surge is registered, so not all five dipsticks need be used in one cycle.

Warning

If you have been diagnosed with polycystic ovaries you should not use these kits because the results will be misleading. Polycystic ovaries result in high LH levels which means that, whatever time in the month you are testing, the kit may register positive.

Persona

This device is manufactured by Unipath and has been marketed as a method of contraception. It is a small gadget which uses dipsticks during the month to measure LH changes. The dipsticks are inserted into the device and a green light indicates that it is safe to have intercourse. When there is the possibility of getting pregnant, a red light appears and on days when ovulation may be occurring, an ‘O’ appears in one of the display windows.

Used in reverse, to highlight your most fertile time, this device can be very useful. Because it is designed for contraception, it errs on the side of caution which means the red light will come on for slightly longer. Some women find this device easier to use than the usual ovulation kits because it actually signals when the testing should take place in any cycle.

There is no reason why you should not try both, to find out which kind of kit suits you best. The important thing is that you should be able to establish, through testing your mucus and taking your temperature or using a kit, which are the fertile days in your cycle. Getting the timing of intercourse right is one of the most crucial ways to help yourself conceive.

*23/73/5*

When I was a small child there was an interesting poster on the wall of the public toilet in the shopping street of our town. It showed black outlines of a woman and a man, with arrows pointing to explosive-looking red stars inside their bodies. When I learned to read I discovered that it said SYPHILIS STRIKES HERE! AND HERE! AND HERE! When I asked ‘Mum, what’s syphilis?’, Mum appeared embarrassed and answered A nasty disease, but little girls don’t get it. Hurry up now, we’re running late’. I got the message that it was something I shouldn’t ask about, but I wondered if it caused Dad’s stiff knee (there was a red star on the poster man’s knee).

Syphilis is caused by an organism called Treponema pallidum, a combination of the Greek and

Latin for ‘pale turning thread’. You may also hear it called a spirochaete (from the Greek meaning ‘coiled like a serpent’), a term that describes all germs of this shape. When it’s seen live under the microscope, the treponema is a tiny coil that constantly twists like a corkscrew or bends in the middle.

The best-known theory about how syphilis arrived in Europe is that in 1493 Christopher Columbus and his crew brought it back on their return from the Americas. However syphilis reached them, the Europeans had no immunity and the disease spread rapidly. In the late fifteenth century it was called the ‘Great Pox’. The French called it ‘the Neapolitan disease’ and the Italians called it ‘the French disease’. The name ‘syphilis’ comes from a poem written in 1521 about a shepherd of that name who had the disease.

Bleaching This makes fine dark hairs less conspicuous. Proprietary creams are available or a home mixture may be made by mixing 30 ml of 6 per cent hydrogen peroxide with 20 drops of ammonia. Bleaches occasionally cause irritation of the skin, but this subsides within a few days of use. These preparations also bleach clothes and towels, so take care when using them. Bleaching is particularly suitable for the upper lip, but it must be repeated when the bleached hair falls out and is replaced by a new dark hair.

Shaving This is easy, cheap and effective, though many women find it distasteful, perhaps because of its association with masculinity. Contrary to popular belief, shaving doesn’t increase the rate of hair growth, but because the hairs regrow with blunt rather than pointed tips, the regrowth feels more stubbly.

Plucking Slow and painful, this is only practical for isolated coarse hairs such as those that sometimes grow around the nipple. Constant plucking around the upper lip and chin may lead to inflammation of the hair follicles, which can result in pigmentation and scarring.

Depilatory creams These dissolve hairs, and are widely used for the armpits and around the bikini line. They occasionally cause skin allergy or irritation. Use them on a small test patch of skin before treating a large area.

Waxing This form of plucking allows a large number of hairs to be removed together. Various forms of cold and hot wax can be used, ranging from a pot of beeswax and resin on the kitchen stove to electrically heated kits that automatically dispense a thin layer of wax when rolled over the skin. There’s always an ‘ouch’ when you yank off the wax, but the hair takes longer to reappear than with other temporary methods. Skin inflammation may sometimes follow waxing, especially if the wax used is too hot.

Abrasive pads Made of sandpaper, these used to be popular for the legs. They have the same effect as shaving or depilatory creams.

Electrolysis and thermolysis These are the only methods that offer any hope of permanent hair removal. A fine needle is inserted into the base of the hair follicle to destroy the growth centre of the hair by electric current or heat. The hair is then removed with forceps. Electrolysis and thermolysis work best for coarse hairs. I would recommend these methods only with a trained operator. Home kits are not advised because of the greater potential for scarring, pigmentation or infection if used by unskilled hands.

Because the hair follicles are not uniformly deep, the best results you can hope for from any treatment session is that about half of the hairs treated will have their growth centres destroyed and will not regrow. A careful operator will avoid scarring by inserting the needle to the depth at which the majority of follicles are, which misses the follicles that lie deeper. The differences in depth are in fractions of a millimeter, which explains why skill and care are so important. The operator will go a bit deeper on the missed hairs at the next session, so that gradually the majority of terminal hair follicles are destroyed.

Most women will notice some breast enlargement and tenderness when they first start treatment, but this settles within a month or two. A minority of women have some side-effects while taking the progestogen. These are similar to premenstrual symptoms such as fluid retention, abdominal bloating, sore breasts and mood changes. These effects can usually be overcome by reducing the dose or changing the type of progestogen. Less than one in ten women give up HRT because of side-effects.

Some other objections to HRT A small number of doctors are still unwilling to prescribe HRT. A few are afraid of unknown effects. Others believe that health disturbances due to the menopause are just a normal part of growing older, which we should put up with. This argument just won’t hold water. Becoming longsighted (which happens to all men and women during middle age) is also a natural process of ageing, but would anyone suggest that we should all give up reading at the age of 50, and ‘put up with’ the fact that we can no longer focus on the printed word? Would anyone try to justify not treating other health problems associated with ageing such as heart failure or prostate disorders? Certainly not!

Many women feel doubtful or hostile about taking hormones because they believe that it interferes with nature. So it does, but if nature were left to its own devices many women would suffer from health deterioration after 50 years of age. No other species outlives its reproductive life span (except some domestic animals maintained with veterinary care). Progress in preventive and therapeutic health care could be seen as part of the natural evolution of human life, so the use of hormones to treat menopausal symptoms and prevent illness in later life may not be so ‘unnatural’.

There are those, like Germaine Greer, who argue that HRT is just another way for those who sell hormones to make profits. This unfair argument could be extended to everything we buy, including all orthodox and alternative health services. It’s usually held by those who’ve never needed any pharmaceutical products or health services to remain well.

Other women are afraid of side-and unknown health risks. Some just don’t like using any medicines. Discuss your doubts about HRT with your doctor.
You may change your mind when you understand the benefits, but the choice whether you use it is yours.

Making the decision Some doctors believe that almost all women should use HRT after the menopause. However, many experts in postmenopausal health-care point out that HRT has not proved to be of benefit to all women and there may be
no reason to use it if you have no symptoms of the lack of oestrogen and no risk
factors for coronary heart disease and osteoporosis. If you are well informed about all aspects of HRT, you’ll be in a better position to decide with your doctor whether you need or want to use it.

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I agree that child-bearing is natural and shouldn’t be treated as a disease. But nature, left to her own devices, isn’t always a good midwife. It’s estimated that without antenatal supervision or help during labour, only six out of ten confinements would result in healthy mothers and babies. There are abundant statistics to show that modern obstetrics saves the lives and preserves the health of many mothers and many more babies. Worldwide, almost all the women who die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth have no access to modern obstetric care.

Though lately there has been a very small number deciding on home birth with a midwife in attendance, the vast majority of Australian women choose to give birth in hospital, where specialist help and emergency facilities (such as humidi-cribs and blood transfusion) are available every hour of every day. I believe that this is the safest way to go. There’s no such thing as ‘no-risk’ child-bearing. Even the most normal pregnancy may run into problems during labour or with the newborn.

But not all women feel at ease in the atmosphere of hospitals, which they associate with illness. Hospital interiors can be intimidating, especially if you’re surrounded by complicated-looking, mysterious equipment. In response to consumer demands for more relaxing surroundings and less intervention during childbirth, some maternity hospitals have set up birth centres as an alternative to delivery in a labour ward. In these centres healthy women with normal pregnancies can proceed to natural deliveries assisted by a midwife, with full labour-ward facilities close at hand in case of any problems. The midwives also provide antenatal supervision and counselling for the women that they will assist in the birth.

Birth centres aren’t just labour wards with flowered wallpaper and homey furniture. The important features are the attitudes, philosophy and training of the midwives as caring, responsible and adaptable helpers who make no compromise to safety. More than four out of ten women booked for giving birth at a birth centre are transferred – at the suggestion of the midwife and with the mother’s agreement – to the labour ward for optimal safety in completing the delivery.