Help with your pain

Endometriosis is much more than just brown/black spots in the pelvis that can be seen at a laparoscopy. There are many different problems that women with endometriosis suffer.

Some women will have painful periods, but be otherwise completely well. Others have a more complicated picture that can include:
- an irritable bowel (IBS)
- sharp, stabbing or burning pains
- an irritable bladder
- painful intercourse
- bad headaches or migraines
- fatigue and exhaustion
- pain moving around or sitting for a long time
- trouble sleeping

Not surprisingly, women with these problems feel worn down and miserable.

Because these problems cover several different areas of medicine, women often feel lost 'between the cracks' of healthcare. Each health practitioner they see cares for a small part of the whole picture, with variable success.

Surgery is helpful for some aspects of the pain, but can leave many women disappointed.

I hope that you will find this blog useful for your pain. Each week there will be a new topic covered, and your comments are welcome.

With best wishes,

Dr Susan Evans, Gynecologist and Laparoscopic surgeon

Friday, September 25, 2009

Should I go gluten free?

Many women with endo also have an irritable bowel (IBS). When they go 'gluten free' they feel better, but do they really have a problem with gluten? If you cut down on foods with gluten, you also cut down on foods with wheat in them. Wheat releases a type of 'sugar' in the gut called fructan, which some people find difficult to absorb. A little bit of bread is fine, but if they have a larger amount, they have wind, pain, and maybe diarrhoea. The latest information shows that it is fructose and fructans which often cause the problem, rather than gluten.

Have you found any foods that bother you? or anything that helps?


Posted by helpwithpain at 6:43 PM

3 comments:

  1. Hi Susan,

    Can you also make some comments about dairy products because women with endometriosis often get conflicting advice as to whether dairy products are a problem for them or not? Is there any current research that is situated around dairy products and their effect on women with endometriosis?

    ReplyDelete

  2. Dear Tricia,

    Thanks for asking! I'll do my best to explain how I see endometriosis and dairy products.

    Whether or not you eat dairy products will not affect whether or not you get endometriosis. Avoiding dairy products will not make endometriosis go away.

    However, some women have more abdominal pain after eating dairy products. This is because it can cause bowel pain, which often feels similar to endometriosis pain or pain from the uterus.

    When you eat dairy products, most of the lactose in them is absorbed into your body in the small bowel (first part of the bowel). If you have eaten quite a large amount of diary products, like a milkshake, then some of the lactose reaches the large bowel (lower part of the bowel). In the large bowel, bacteria ferment the lactose to gas.

    In people with a healthy bowel, the bowel handles some extra gas well and they dont have pain.
    In people with a sensitive bowel (like a lot of women with endometriosis), any extra gas causes a lot of pain.
    This problem is worse in women who absorb lactose very slowly from their small bowel.

    So, if you have a problem with lactose (dairy products), you can still have them, but in small amounts. You can still have milk in tea, for example, but maybe not a whole milkshake all at once.

    Thanks for asking,

    Susan Evans

    ReplyDelete

  3. Thank you for explaining this issue in such simple - and easy to understand! - language. I think there are a lot of misconceptions out there about the effect of dairy products on women with endometriosis...

    ReplyDelete

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