Video: Causes of endometriosis

First Harry Reich Award presented at EFA’s Blossom Ball

First Harry Reich Award presented at EFA’s Blossom Ball 

8 MARCH 2014

Professors Linda Giudice and Liselotte Mettler were honoured at EFA’s 6th Annual Blossom Ball with the inaugural Harry Reich Award.

Yesterday evening, the Endometriosis Foundation of America (EFA) awarded the inaugural Harry Reich Award to recognise two extraordinary healthcare professionals, Professors Linda Giudice and Liselotte Mettler, for the difference these two women have made in the lives of other women through their practice, research, and advocacy.

Tamer Seckin presenting Linda Giudice with her Award at the Blossom Ball

In announcing these two awards, co-founder of EFA, Dr Tamer Seckin, emphasised how the achievements of both Linda Giudice and Liselotte Mettler are an inspiration and encouragement for women (with and without endometriosis) to take charge of their health!

Professor Giudice is a biochemist, gynaecologist, and reproductive endocrinologist with a specific clinical interest in endometriosis, infertility, assisted reproduction, and implantation and ovulatory disorders.

Her research focuses on environmental impacts on reproductive health, steroid hormone signalling in human endometrium, endometrial-placental interactions, endometrium as a mucosal tissue, and translational applications of human embryonic and endometrial stem cells.  She is distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Reproductive Sciences at the University of California San Francisco, immediate past-president of the ASRM, president-elect of the World Endometriosis Society, vice-president of the World Endometriosis Research Foundation, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tamer Seckin presenting Liselotte Mettler with her Award at the Blossom Ball

Professor Emeritus Mettler has specialised in reproductive medicine, gynaecological endoscopy, endometriosis, and gynaecological endocrinology since 1981 when she became deputy director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Kiel.  Following her retirement she remains an honorary patron of the Kiel School of Gynaecological Endoscopy and Reproductive Medicine, where she still teaches up to a dozen international training courses each year.

She is also visiting professor to the German Medical Center and the Dubai Healthcare City.  Professor Mettler is a former board member and current ambassador of the World Endometriosis Society, a board member of the German Foundation for Endometriosis Research (SEF), and the General Secretary of the International Academy of Human Reproduction.

The Harry Reich Award

The Harry Reich Award is awarded by EFA to recognise extraordinary healthcare professionals, who are making a difference in women’s lives (and their families) by their practice, research, and advocacy.

Harry Reich with honouree Linda Giudice at the Blossom Ball

The award is named for Dr Harry Reich, a pioneer in the field of laparoscopic surgery, who performed many “firsts”, including: the first laparoscopic hysterectomy, the first pelvic lymphadenectomy for cancer, and the first excision of cul-de-sac endometriosis that included rectal resection.

Dr Reich, who has operated in more than 60 countries, is an honorary professor in Russia and Romania, as well as a Fellow (ad eundem) of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK for his pioneering work in the field of endoscopy.  Though retired, Dr Reich remains actively involved in many medical organisations and serves as a reviewer for multiple scientific journals.

Please visit Endometriosis.org for more news about endo.

http://endometriosis.org/news/general/first-harry-reich-award-presented-at-efas-blossom-ball/

Dr. Drew doesn’t understand your “garbage” diagnosis ~ Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis

Grrrrrrrrrr. All the work we do for awareness and then this schmuck comes along...

The "Loveline" cohost draws outrage for his comments on endometriosis

MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

Dr. Drew Pinsky is a board certified internist and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at USC, but most of us know him better as radio and cable television’s most tireless ambulance chaser. Over the years, he’s doled out a variety of less than sound and/or helpful ideas. But when he speculated recently to a “Loveline” caller about his fiancée’s endometriosis, he definitively made the case against getting medical advice from flippant talk show hosts.

As Erin Gloria Ryan first noted on Jezebel, Pinsky was fielding a call from a man who was concerned about his girlfriend’s “multitude of conditions,” including endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, lactose intolerance and what he described as “no stomach lining.” The good doctor quickly interjected before the listener could even pose his question, explaining, “These are what we call sort of functional disorders. Everything you mentioned, everything you mentioned, are things that actually aren’t discernibly pathological. They’re what we call ‘garbage bag diagnoses,’ when you can’t think of anything else, you go, ‘Eh, it’s that.’ So, it then makes me question why is she so somatically preoccupied that she’s visiting doctors all the time with pains and urinary symptoms and pelvic symptoms, and then that makes me wonder, was she sexually abused growing up?”

Though the caller did acknowledge that his fiancée had in fact survived abuse, let’s take a step back here and observe that he never said the woman was “preoccupied” and “visiting doctors all the time” – on the contrary, he said she almost always “refuses” to go to doctors, even when she’s “in so much pain.” But Dr. Drew had a handy explanation, stating, “Trust me, she saw lots of doctors before you.” He then went on to explain why her early abuse was causing her problems now. “When people have unexplained pain, pelvic pain, it’s called somatoform dissociation,” he said, “and the only way her body, which was suffering during those early experiences, can tell its tale of woe is with pain. And she really needs to see a trauma specialist, not a urologist. Know what I’m saying?” This was immediately segued with Pinksy’s colleague joking that an additional way someone could have unexplained pelvic pain was by having sex with the show’s guest, Alan Thicke. Charming.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/04/29/dr_drew_doesnt_understand_your_garbage_disorder/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the link to the CNN contact form for Dr. Drew's show...also what I wrote. Please give them a piece of your mind. IC folks....go get him!

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form15.html?124

Dr Drews comments on endometriosis are outrageous. He is not educated in a disease that strikes more than one in ten women! Find another doctor! Chronic stage 4 endo with severe adhesions has almost killed me twice. It is real, incurable and I hope you devote air some time in spreading awareness about endometriosis to counteract  the sad stereotype that has made the burden of this horrible disease even harder. 

J Laparoendosc Adv Surg Tech A. 2014 Mar;24(3):165-70. doi: 10.1089/lap.2013.0270.

Safety and Effect on Quality of Life of Laparoscopic Douglasectomy with Radical Excision for Deeply Infiltrating Endometriosis in the Cul-de-Sac.

Hong DG1, Kim JY, Lee YH, Chong GO, Cho YL, Lee YS.

Author information

Abstract

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the safety and effects on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of radical excision of deeply infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) in the cul-de-sac. Patients and Methods: This study included 390 patients with pathologically proven DIE in the cul-de-sacwho underwent laparoscopic surgery between January 2000 and December 2011. The preoperative and postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores and HRQOL data from the 36-item Short Form (SF-36) questionnaire were recorded in 343 patients. Surgical outcomes, complications, and HRQOL were compared between patients who underwent hysterectomy and those who did not. Data were analyzed using the paired t test, Student's t test, and Pearson's correlation analysis. Results: In the group overall, the VAS pain score and all SF-36 scales improved after surgery. In patients who underwent hysterectomy, all SF-36 scales improved except physical functioning, role-physical, general health, and vitality. In patients who did not undergo hysterectomy, all SF-36 scales improved except general health. There were significant associations between gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist therapy and SF-36 mental health, SF-36 mental component summary, and oral medication use. The VAS pain score and SF-36 body pain score showed the greatest improvement, and the SF-36 general health score showed the least improvement. Patients who underwent hysterectomy had more severe disease and poorer surgical outcomes than those who did not undergo hysterectomy. Conclusions: Laparoscopic radical excision of DIE in the cul-de-sac is safe and significantly improves HRQOL, especially in terms of pain. The severity of endometriosis may affect the degree of improvement in HRQOL scores.

PMID:

 

24625348

 

[PubMed - in process]

Researchers to present at the World Congress on Endometriosis in Brazil

Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 00:48 Updated 4 hours agoSPECIAL TO HNN PROVIDED BY MARSHALL UNIVERSITY

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Two investigators from the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University will be traveling later this month to Sao Paolo to present their research at the World Congress on Endometriosis.

The congress is held every three years and brings together scientists, clinicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals involved in research or treatment of endometriosis a chronic, inflammatory condition that affects young women and adversely impacts their fertility and quality of life.

Dr. Nalini Santanam, a professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Toxicology, and biomedical sciences doctoral student Kristeena Ray said they are looking forward to participating in the conference, which is being held April 30-May 3.

"Though 10 to 15 percent of young women suffer from endometriosis and almost two-thirds of these women suffer from chronic pain, the exact nature of this disease is not very well understood. My laboratory has a long-standing interest in understanding why some women get endometriosis and have pain," said Santanam. "We are very honored that our abstracts were chosen for presentation at this meeting. The most exciting part was to find out that Kristeena was selected to give an oral presentation and was one of only six investigators selected to receive the Rodolphe Maheux Travel Grant."

More: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/86119

Curr Opin Obstet Gynecol. 2014 Apr 8. [Epub ahead of print]

Vitamin D and female fertility.

Lerchbaum E1, Rabe T.

Author information

Abstract

PURPOSE OF REVIEW:

Apart from the well known effects of vitamin D on maintaining calcium homeostasis and promoting bone mineralization, there is some evidence suggesting that vitamin D also modulates human reproductive processes. We will review the most interesting and relevant studies on vitamin D and female fertility published over the past year.

RECENT FINDINGS:

In the past year, several observational studies reported a better in-vitro fertilization outcome in women with sufficient vitamin D levels (≥30 ng/ml), which was mainly attributed to vitamin D effects on the endometrium. One randomized controlled trial found an increased endometrial thickness in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) receiving vitamin D during intrauterine insemination cycles. Further, vitamin D supplementation had a beneficial effect on serum lipids in PCOS women. Vitamin D treatment improved endometriosis in a rat model and increased vitamin D intake was related to a decreased risk of incident endometriosis. Vitamin D was also favorably associated with primary dysmenorrhea, uterine leiomyoma, and ovarian reserve in late reproductive aged women.

SUMMARY:

In women undergoing in-vitro fertilization, a sufficient vitamin D level (≥30 ng/ml) should be obtained. Vitamin D supplementation might improve metabolic parameters in women with PCOS. A high vitamin D intake might be protective against endometriosis.

PMID:

 

24717915

 

[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

MIT bioengineer works to unravel endometriosis

By Carolyn Y. Johnson / Globe Staff

Linda Griffith, a biological engineer at MIT who used a new technique to begin to unravel the molecular cause of endometriosis.

For four years, MIT bioengineer Linda Griffith has been slowly unraveling the biology of endometriosis, a complicated and poorly understood disease that she has silently struggled with her entire life. The condition—in which tissue normally found in the uterus grows elsewhere in the body—is remarkably common. It causes severe pain and infertility and affects up to 10 percent of women, yet relatively little is known about what causes it, how to prevent it, or even how to effectively treat it.

Full article: http://www.boston.com/news/science/blogs/science-in-mind/2014/02/05/endometriosis/QPaGvDagBHnTjXQFqUZBTL/blog.html

Author Hilary Mantel: 'It won’t all be novels now — it could be plays' ~ Writes with severe Endometriosis

"Mantel has written about the severe endometriosis that doctors failed to diagnose in her youth; how it caused the loss of her fertility and the doubling of her body weight in less than a year.

Now she says the condition defined her as a writer, indeed made her one. “You really live on the verge of panic because you don’t know what’s going on inside you. And when the pain isn’t there, you know it’s waiting for you. It’s why I became a writer in the first place. I don’t like to let people down and I couldn’t have gone into an office every day.

“Sometimes I’ve travelled [to author events] and gone on stage when any sensible person would have stayed at home. I have sat in car parks thinking, ‘Do I go in and do the talk or do I go to A&E?’"

http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/author-hilary-mantel-it-wont-all-be-novels-now--it-could-be-plays-9245466.html

UPCI/MWRI researchers to present results of immune gene profile exploring endometriosis and cancer

Published on April 7, 2014 at 8:42 AM · No Comments

Some women with endometriosis, a chronic inflammatory disease, are predisposed toovarian cancer, and a genetic screening might someday help reveal which women are most at risk, according to a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) study, in partnership with Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI).

Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2014, UPCI and MWRI researchers will present the preliminary results of the first comprehensive immune gene profile exploring endometriosis and cancer.

"A small subset of women with endometriosis go on to develop ovarian cancer, but doctors have no clinical way to predict which women," said senior author Anda Vlad, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at MWRI. "If further studies show that the genetic pathway we uncovered is indicative of future cancer development, then doctors will know to more closely monitor certain women and perhaps take active preventative measures, such as immune therapy."

Read more: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20140407/UPCIMWRI-researchers-to-present-results-of-immune-gene-profile-exploring-endometriosis-and-cancer.aspx

Susan Sarandon Speaks about her struggle with Endometriois

Adhesiolysis - Treatment for Chronic Pelvic Pain - saved from possible extinction? Dr Wiseman of the International Adhesion Society

New Guideline: Management of Women With Endometriosis

Peter Kovacs, MD, PhD

DisclosuresMarch 21, 2014

ESHRE Guideline: Management of Women With Endometriosis

Dunselman GA, Vermeulen N, Becker C, et al

Hum Reprod. 2014;29:400-412

Background

Endometriosis can be diagnosed when endometrial tissue is found in extrauterine locations. It is found in 10%-15% of the general population and in up to one third of the infertile population.^[1] There are various theories that attempt to explain its etiology. Some cases can be explained by retrograde menstruation, but metaplasia, hormonal, inflammatory processes, and abnormal cytokine function also seem to play a role.^[2]

A wide variety of symptoms may accompany endometriosis. Some women are asymptomatic, whereas others are affected by dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain, and urinary and gastrointestinal symptoms. The symptoms typically recur in a cyclic fashion, and an exacerbation can occur around menstruation.

The diagnosis can be suspected on the basis of symptoms but is established when histologic confirmation of endometrial glands and stroma is made from a tissue biopsy sample obtained from an extrauterine location.

Read the rest here: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/822100

Burden of adhesions in abdominal and pelvic surgery: systematic review and met-analysis

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

A BREAKTHROUGH IN A DISEASE THAT NO ONE LIKES TO TALK ABOUT

POSTED BY AMANDA SCHAFFER

" Over the years, Linda Griffith, a biological engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has undergone nine surgeries for endometriosis. In women with the disease, tissue that normally lines the uterus grows elsewhere in the body—for instance, on the ovaries, bladder, or bowel—often causing pain, infertility, or both. In early-stage cases, patients have small lesions, usually accompanied by inflammation; if the disease progresses, scar tissue may cause one organ to stick to another. The bladder might attach to the uterus, or the ovary might attach to the bowel. It’s “like someone poured superglue into the pelvis, and organs that normally are free to move around are, all of a sudden, just stuck,” Keith Isaacson, a gynecologist and surgeon at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, in Massachusetts, said. He operated several times on Griffith, a MacArthur fellowship recipient, and is now her scientific collaborator."

New York Times

Click here to read the rest

Transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy. as diagnostic tool Endometriosis Adhesions

JSLS. 2012 Jul-Sep;16(3):461-5. doi: 10.4293/108680812X13462882736295.

Transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy.

Ezedinma NA1, Phelps JY.

Author information

Abstract

Transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy (THL) is being performed regularly in Europe and China, but rarely in the United States. The reasons may be physicians' unfamiliarity with the procedure and their uneasiness over potential rectal puncturing due to the proximity of the rectum to the vaginal trocar insertion site. THL has the advantage over hysterosalpingography (HSG) in that it allows for direct visualization of the tubal mucosa in addition to determining tubal patency. THL has advantages over traditional laparoscopy in that it does not require an abdominal incision and has the capability of being conducted in an outpatient office setting with local anesthesia. Studies have shown that THL has comparable accuracy to laparoscopy with 96.1% concordance between THL and laparoscopic findings. THL may be combined with chromopertubation and salpingoscopy. In addition to diagnostic purposes, THL may be used for operative intervention including adhesiolysis, endometriosis ablation, and ovarian drilling. Studies from France and China report the occurrence of rectal injury from 0% to1%. Despite the advantages of THL and low reports of rectal injury, THL has not gained popularity in the United States. The purpose of this article is to familiarize gynecologists in the United States with THL.

PMID:

 

23318074

 

[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] 

PMCID:

 

PMC3535799

 

Free PMC Article

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Transvaginal endoscopy and small ovarian endometriomas: unravelling the missing link?

Gynecol Surg. 2014;11:3-7. Epub 2013 Oct 17.

Gordts S, Puttemans P, Gordts S, Valkenburg M, Brosens I, Campo R.

Author information

Abstract

The incidence of endometriosis in the infertile female is estimated to be between 20 and 50 %. Although the causal relationship between endometriosis and infertility has not been proven, it is generally accepted that the disease impairs reproductive outcome. Indirect imaging techniques and transvaginal laparoscopy now offer the possibility of an early stage diagnosis. Although it remains debated whether the disease is progressive, treatment in an early stage is recommendable as it carries less risk for ovarian damage, hence premature ovarian failure. Under water, inspection with the technique of transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy (THL) accurately shows the invagination of the ovarian cortex as minimal superficial lesions but with the presence of well-differentiated endometrial like tissue at the base, the lateral walls and especially the inner edges of the small endometrioma. An inflammatory environment is responsible for the formation of connecting adhesions with the broad ligament and lateral wall with invasion of endometrial-like tissue and formation of adenomyotic lesions. In around 50 % of the small endometriomas, adhesiolysis is necessary at the site of invagination with opening of the cyst, to free the chocolate content and hereby recognize the underlying endometrioma. The detailed inspection of these early-stage endometriotic lesions at THL reunites the hypothesis of Sampson with the observation of Hughesdon.

KEYWORDS:

Endometrioma, Endoscopy, Hydroflotation, Ovarian endometriosis, Pathogenesis, Surgery, Transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy

PMID:

 

24611037

 

[PubMed]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24611037

Fight like a girl! Endometriosis

These guys are great, Visit the site. Leave your story and help us create awareness of this vicious disease,


http://www.fightlikeagirlclub.com

Breaking News Genzyme Seprafilm

Lurpon all over again...grrrrr

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen Announces Settlement with Genzyme Corporation to Resolve Allegations of Off-Label Marketing

March 07, 2014

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MADISON, Wis., March 6 -- The WisconsinAttorney General issued the following news release:

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced today that Wisconsin has joined with other states and the federal government to settle allegations thatGenzyme Corp. (Genzyme) marketed and caused false claims to be submitted to federal and state health care programs for use of a "slurry" version of its Seprafilm adhesion barrier. Seprafilm is a thin film intended to reduce adhesions after surgery by forming a bio-resorbable barrier between abdominal tissue and organs. Genzyme is a biotechnology corporation based in Cambridge, Mass., and was acquired by Sanofi-Aventis SA in April 2011. As part of the settlement, Wisconsin Medicaid will receive $44,698.27 in restitution and other recoveries. Medicaid is a health insurance program for the needy and disabled jointly funded by the state and federal governments. The agreement resolves allegations that Genzyme sales representatives taught doctors and other staff to cut the Seprafilm sheets into small pieces, add saline and allow the pieces to dissolve until the desired consistency was reached. This mixture was referred to as "slurry." Genzyme sales representatives traded recipes for slurry, and trained each other in how to create it. The slurry was used in laparoscopic surgeries by inserting a catheter filled with the mixture into the body and applying it into the abdominal cavity. Seprafilm isFDA-approved for use in open abdominal surgery but not for minimally invasive surgeries, such as laparoscopic surgery. Allegedly, as a result of this conduct,Genzyme knowingly caused hospitals and other purchasers of Seprafilm to submit false and fraudulent claims to health care programs for uses that were not reimbursable.

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A BREAKTHROUGH IN A DISEASE THAT NO ONE LIKES TO TALK ABOUT

POSTED BY AMANDA SCHAFFER

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/02/a-breakthrough-in-a-disease-that-no-one-likes-to-talk-about.html

"The work also hints at potential new treatments. No new drugs for endometriosis have been approved in decades, and most of the current ones target hormones that can fuel the growth of uterine tissue. “The first line is always a birth-control pill,” said Taylor. This approach seems to work for some women, reducing pain and perhaps stopping the growth of lesions, but not for everyone, and sometimes its effectiveness wanes. Patients also commonly use drugs like ibuprofen, which target inflammation but are not specifically designed to treat endometriosis. The M.I.T. group’s work suggests that it might be possible to reduce inflammation in a more targeted way in some patients with the disease."

Million Woman March for Endometriosis March 13, 2014

Find a group!

 

 Visit the Facebook page!

Million Woman March for Endometriosis©, is an internationally-coordinated awareness campaign that will occur worldwide in dozens of international capitals, including Amsterdam, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Kingston, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Rome, Stockholm, and Washington, D.C., just to name a few.

With an estimated 176 million women and girls throughout the world still living lives awash in anguish because of this devastating disorder, we believe that an internationally coordinated campaign is absolutely necessary to effect the changes that are needed to overturn the status quo.

Join us in this unprecedented worldwide peaceful demonstration to raise awareness about Endometriosis, Adenomyosis, Fibroids and other related chronic pelvic pain disorders in women…

Thank you 

Shauna Fuller Clarke's B.A.S.E. Foundation 

Promoting awareness and offering support

to victims of Endometriosis

Please visit them

http://basejamaica.com/