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/

Genetic Screening For Endometriosis-Associated Ovarian Cancer

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects more than 176 million women and girls worldwide, according to the Endometriosis Foundation of America. Despite being one of the most common gynecological disorders, there is no definitive consensus on the cause of endometriosis. To add insult to injury, some women who have endometriosis are also predisposed to ovarian cancer.

A new study from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) reveals that genetic screening could someday help clinicians to know which women are most at risk.

The research team will present their results on the first comprehensive immune gene profile exploring endometriosis and cancer on Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2014.

“A small subset of women with endometriosis go on to develop ovarian cancer, but doctors have no clinical way to predict which women,” said Anda Vlad, MD, PhD, 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.”

Endometriosis is a painful condition that is often misdiagnosed for years before some form of correct treatment is attempted. As redOrbit reported in February, it is called a disease of theories, because so little is known about how it works, or who it will strike.

“We know there is a genetic component, we know there is an environmental component, and we know there is an inflammatory component. But it’s very difficult to say for individual patients what particular sequence of events led to particular symptoms,” Michael Beste, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering, said.

It is the genetic component, and its association to cancer, that Vlad and her team are focused on finding.

Vlad and her team screened tissue samples from women with benign endometriosis, women with precancerous lesions and women with endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer. This allowed the researchers to identify the complement pathway, which refers to a series of protein interactions that trigger an amplified immune response, as the most prominent immune pathway that is activated in both endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer.

“If, as our study indicates, a problem with the immune system facilitates cancer growth through chronic activation of the complement pathway, then perhaps we can find ways to change that and more effectively prime immune cells to fight early cancer, while controlling the complement pathway,” said Swati Maruti Suryawanshi, PhD, a post-doctoral research fellow at MWRI.

Source: April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

Topics: Health Medical Pharma, Endometriosis, Menstrual cycle, Medicine, American Association for Cancer Research, Health, Cancer, ovarian cancer

Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113114048/endometriosis-and-ovarian-cancer-040514/#XMkO89uv8p3qqxHf.99

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

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

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

Lupron Side Effects ~ Tell you Lupron Story on Erin Brockovich Site ~ Read others stories

Lupron Side Effects

For far too long now, I have been contacted by people who tell me that they have been adversely impacted by Lupron. In fact, since 1999, the FDA has received adverse drug reports about Lupron from in excess of 4,000 women and approximately, 3,000 men. According to the FDA, in 325 of those cases, hospitilization was necessary and 25 women died, directly related to Lupron use.

The shared stories on this site reveal lives that have been irreparably damaged. We need to do something about this. Nothing is more powerful in coercing change than the voices of the people. I hope that this site is a place where you can come and share your story and thoughts. This is a place where you can link to other Facebook groups, read blogs and learn about what rights you may have and current news on the Lupron. This is a place where we can become stronger together.

- See more at: http://www.lupronsideeffects.net/#sthash.BMD1RGV9.dpuf

http://www.lupronsideeffects.net/

Eve's Daughters, or, Go With the Flow

In the beginning, there was pain.

My periods began when I was 13-years-old, and I only remember them accompanied with pain. I bled heavily each month for six to eight days. As I got older, I would find myself passed out on my bedroom or bathroom floor from painful cramps. I would pass heavy blood clots, was often lightheaded, and regularly was prescribed iron supplements and over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen. When Alleve came on the market, I was thrilled to try a new pain reliever. They would dull, but never eradicate, the pain. My periods were always preceded with hefty bouts of PMS; I suffered from bloating, fatigue, headaches, skin rashes, and swelling in my knees and fingers.

When I'd report these symptoms to my doctor, he told me that periods can be like that. Some girls have problems, others don't. I just happened to be one of the girls who had a problem period. My mother told me the same thing, adding, "That's what my mother told me. It was like that for me and for other girls I knew growing up, too." As Carol Pearson discusses in her TEDTalk, as Zora Neale Hurston wrote inTheir Eyes Were Watching God ("Black women are the mules of the world"), as Eve was told after she fed into her curiosity and took a bite of that forbidden fruit, I learned -- whether the lesson was intended to be learned this way or not -- that being a girl, becoming a woman, was painful. And I had to live with that pain. I had to learn to handle pain.

And so I did. I went with the flow.

What I didn't know was that I had endometriosis.Endometriosis is a disease that affects 10 percent of women globally. It knows no race, class, or socioeconomic status. Some doctors refer to endometriosis as a benign cancer. Padma Lakshmi, model and co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America, describes the disease as "a web, like a vapor, like weeds in a garden that permeate everything, and stain everything. And metaphorically as well as clinically what you have to go and do, whether it is with laparoscopy or therapy or just understanding and support, is you have to go in there... and get rid of it. Not only getting rid of it in the womb, but getting rid of it in the heart and the mind."

Read the rest http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicole-brittingham-furlonge/eves-daughters-or-go-with_b_5010896.html

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

About Endometriosis from Endometriosis.org You Can Fight Endometriosis

What it costs to have endometriosis

J Manag Care Pharm. 2007 Apr;13(3):262-72.

Actuarial analysis of private payer administrative claims data for women with endometriosis.

Mirkin D, Murphy-Barron C, Iwasaki K.

Author information

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Endometriosis is a painful, chronic disease affecting 5.5 million women and girls in the United States and Canada and millions more worldwide. The usual age range of women diagnosed with endometriosis is 20 to 45 years. Endometriosis has an estimated prevalence of 10% among women of reproductive age, although estimates of prevalence vary greatly. Endometriosis is the most common gynecological cause of chronic pelvic pain, but published information on its associated medical care costs is scarce.

OBJECTIVE:

The aim of this study was to determine (1) the prevalence of endometriosis in the United States, (2) the amount of health care services used by women coded with endometriosis in a commercial medical claims database during 1999 to 2003, and (3) the endometriosis-related costs for 2003, the most recent data available at the time the study was performed.

METHODS:

This study was a retrospective review of administrative data for commercial payers, which included enrollment, eligibility, and claims payment data contained in the Medstat Marketscan database for approximately 4 million commercial insurance members. All claims and membership data were extracted for each woman aged 18 to 55 years who had at least 1 medical or hospital claim with a diagnosis code for endometriosis (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] codes 617.00-617.99) for 1999 through 2003. Claims data from 1999 through 2003 were used to determine prevalence and health care resource utilization (i.e., annual admission rate, annual surgical rate, distribution of endometriosis-related surgeries, and prevalence of comorbid conditions). The cost analysis was based on claims from 2003 only. Cost was defined as the payer-allowed charge, which equals the net payer cost plus member cost share.

RESULTS:

The prevalence of women with medical claims (inpatient and/or outpatient) containing ICD-9-CM codes for endometriosis was 1.1% for the age band of 30 to 39 years and 0.7% over the entire age span of 18 to 55 years. The medical costs per patient per month (PPPM) for women with endometriosis were 63% greater ($706 PPPM) than those of the average woman per member per month ($433) in 2003; inpatient hospital costs accounted for 32% of total direct medical costs. Between 1999 and 2003, these women with endometriosis who were identified by either inpatient and/or outpatient claims had high rates of hospital admission (53% for any reason; 38% for an endometriosis-related reason) and a high annual surgical procedure rate (64%). Additionally, women with endometriosis frequently suffered from comorbid conditions, and these conditions were associated with greater PPPM costs of 15% to 50% for women with an endometriosis diagnosis code, depending on the condition. Interstitial cystitis was associated with 50% greater cost ($1,061 PPPM); depression, 41% ($997 PPPM); migraine, 40% ($988 PPPM); irritable bowel syndrome, 34% ($943 PPPM); chronic fatigue syndrome, 29% ($913 PPPM); abdominal pain, 20% ($846 PPPM); and infertility, 15% ($813 PPPM).

CONCLUSIONS:

Women with endometriosis have a high hospital admission rate and surgical procedure rate and a high incidence of comorbid conditions. Consequently, these women incur total medical costs that are, on average, 63% higher than medical costs for the average woman in a commercially insured group.

PMID:

 

17407392

 

[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] 

Fre

Happy New Year!

Hoping this is your year to shine! 

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/

Why does my hip hurt so bad?

Ok this is plausible...but what doc can I convince OR is it from that evil lupron..eating my bones away?

Perineural spread of endometriosis along the obturator nerve into the adductor thighcompartment

2012   Japanese journal of radiology

We report the case of a young woman with recurrent unilateral hip pain. A polylobular cystic mass was found in the right adductor space. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a polynodular mass migrating from the intrapelvic region along the obturator nerve. Because of a history of cyclic pain and the characteristics on MRI (hypointense rim and spots of spontaneous hyperintense signal on T1-weighted images), an endometrioma was suspected. The diagnosis of endometriosis was later confirmed through ultrasound-guided biopsy.

		(Waer et al. 2012)
		Waer P, Samson I, et al. (2012). Perineural spread of endometriosis along the obturator nerve into the adductor thigh compartment. Jpn J Radiol 30 (5): 446-9.

PMID: 22350637  DOI: 10.1007/s11604-01 http://www.torna.do/s/Perineural-spread-of-endometriosis-along-the-obturator-nerve-into-the-adductor-thigh-compartment/?x=5&y=1

Harry Reich Sex and Endometriosis

WHAT IF ENDOMETRIOSIS WAS A MEN’S HEALTH ISSUE?

The world would be a different place!
JORDAN DAVIDSON

As a health journalist and a co-founder of Endo Warriors, a support organization for women with endometriosis, I often get asked “what is endometriosis?”

Which is funny since it is estimated that 176 million women worldwide have endometriosis and yet no one knows about this global health issue.

http://www.hormonesmatter.com/endometriosis-mens-health-issue/

Visit Endo Warriors - https://www.facebook.com/endowarriorssupport