Untreated endometriosis can cause significant pain, bloating, excess menstrual bleeding, and digestive distress. Over time, it can also affect a person's fertility. When endometriosis tissue grows outside the uterus, it can affect other organs — especially the ovaries and reproductive structures.
You could be putting your health at risk if you don't get treatment. While they are unlikely to be fatal, they can have a negative impact on your quality of life. Untreated endometriosis can lead to a variety of complications, including: Pain that lasts for a long time.
Endometriosis sometimes gets better by itself, but it can get worse if it's not treated. One option is to keep an eye on symptoms and decide to have treatment if they get worse. Support from self-help groups, such as Endometriosis UK, can be very useful if you're learning how to manage the condition.
Endometriosis has significant social, public health and economic implications. It can decrease quality of life due to severe pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety and infertility. Some individuals with endometriosis experience debilitating pain that prevents them from going to work or school.
Endometriosis is typically a progressive condition, meaning it can get worse over time (29). Infertility is a common complication of endometriosis that may be avoidable with early treatment. Up to half of those with endometriosis have decreased fertility (30).
Endometriosis can invade organs that are near the uterus which can include the bowel and the urinary bladder. This type of endometriosis is called, “deeply infiltrating” or “deeply infiltrative endometriosis” [DIE] because it is found deep within the tissue or organ.
While endometriosis is a common disease, the overall risk of an endometriosis-associated cancer remains low. In a large epidemiological study, the overall frequency of ovarian cancer arising in a patient with a diagnosis of endometriosis was 0.3–0.8%, a risk that was 2–3 times higher than controls [46].
Endometriotic growths on the bowel or other abdominal organs can cause inflammation that leads to bloating, constipation, and other gastrointestinal symptoms that may contribute to weight gain.
Endometriosis Staging System
Stage 1: Minimal disease (five points or less) Stage 2: Mild disease (six to 15 points) Stage 3: Moderate disease (16 to 40 points) Stage 4: Severe disease (41 points and higher)
Stage IV: This is also known as severe endometriosis. With stage IV, deep implants and dense adhesions are present. There may be superficial endometriosis and filmy adhesions, but the disease is more widespread than in Stage III. Any score greater than 40 indicates severe endometriosis.
Endometriosis doesn't always need treatment. Treatment of endometriosis is indicated to treat symptoms (including pain) or infertility, when your quality of life has suffered. If left untreated, sometimes endometriosis symptoms will improve, but most will stay the same.
Retrograde menstrual flow is the most likely cause of endometriosis. Some of the tissue shed during the period flows through the fallopian tube into other areas of the body, such as the pelvis. Genetic factors. Because endometriosis runs in families, it may be inherited in the genes.
Endometriosis can have a range of symptoms such as heavy and painful periods, discomfort during and after intercourse and infertility. However, the condition can also cause abdominal bloating and general fatigue which are very common and often overlooked.
Sometimes this endometrium tissue spreads to other parts of the body, affecting multiple organs and causing symptoms such as: painful periods, intercourse, or gastrointestinal and bladder symptoms; chronic pelvic pain; or infertility.
“Endometriosis can also irritate or block the intestines, causing constipation, gas and bloating. In endo belly, both processes are probably causing the abdomen to bulge out.”
Losing weight with Endometriosis
The first thing that the patient with endometriosis can do is removing the endometrial tissue that grows outside the uterus because this will reduce the pain and also bloating. Doing this treatment will make the patient look thinner and also lose some weight.
Some people have an endo belly, which increases the size of their belly and can affect their appearance. Bloating is typically due to fluid retention and can affect your legs, feet, and hands.
Stage 4 endometriosis is not considered to be a fatal disease. However, it can cause dangerous, life-threatening side effects, plus severely hamper your quality of life.
Another possible explanation for endometriosis in locations far from the uterus is that cells from the lining of the uterus travel through blood vessels or the lymphatic system, thereby reaching other distant organs or body areas. Endometriosis can also spread at the time of surgery.
In women with endometriosis, the tissue typically spreads into the pelvic area but in some cases can travel as far as the chest cavity. The endometrium, no matter where it spreads in the body, is on the same cycle as a woman's period, which is regulated by the female hormone estrogen.
Endometriosis most commonly involves your ovaries, fallopian tubes and the tissue lining your pelvis. Rarely, endometrial-like tissue may be found beyond the area where pelvic organs are located.
Endometriosis has been associated with a higher risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease (CVD). According to Missmer, the association is likely attributable both to systemic chronic inflammation and endometriosis treatments.