The content of this podcast is provided for general informational purposes only and is not intended as,

nor should it be considered a substitute for professional medical advice.

Hello, you are listening to Ichi and Bichi, a podcast that provides answers to your many health questions.

I am Karen Nicholl, Family Nurse Practitioner, and I'm going to talk to you about endometriosis today.

And I know that probably many of you are thinking, well, I don't have endometriosis,

so why do I need to listen to this podcast? But you probably know someone who does have endometriosis

or who's struggling with some of the signs or symptoms of endometriosis if you are not having

those problems, and this might be helpful to you to help your friend or family member who is

suffering from this problem. And I want to say that I have a brand new microphone today,

and I am super, super excited about it, and hope that it was worth the money. So anyway,

I want to talk about this endometriosis and what it is. So we still don't know all the factors

that cause endometriosis, but it happens when cells that line the uterus, meaning the cells that

make up the period blood, travel out to the abdominal cavity and attach to other tissues like

the bladder, fallopian tubes, ovaries, colon, and kidneys. And when that happens every time the

period comes, those endometriosis lesions that are attached to the other tissues in the abdomen

cause inflammation and scarring, which leads to painful periods, pain with intercourse, infertility.

I often see people with the symptom of painful pain in the rectum with bowel movements.

That's a really common problem, especially they'll notice the pain, all these symptoms they'll

tend to notice more during the period. In some women, the lesions can be dormant, and therefore

they do not cause symptoms. But if inflammation is added to the equation, the lesions become active

and cause symptoms. Endometriosis affects about 10% of women in the US, and that's a lot of women,

but even more prevalent in women who have the symptom of pelvic pain. In those women,

...