Medical experts say the primary method of treating endometriosis may actually be worsening people's pain.
ETA: A really regrettable number of transphobes have got hold of this, so, to anyone coming to this who isn't a hateful person, be aware of that.
According to The Guardian, there is a growing medical consensus supporting the idea that there are three different types of endometriosis, which up until recently had all been treated the same. Though all forms of endometriosis involve tissue similar to that found inside uterine walls growing in other parts of the body, this âerrant tissue,â as doctors call it, is not always the primary cause of the pain they experience.
For those with the type of endometriosis that causes painful ovarian cysts, surgery is often the best option. However, new research has found that 80 percent of those who suffer from the disease actually have the superficial formâknown as peritoneal endometriosisâand their pain is caused by the ways that nerve endings interact with the tissue, rather than the tissue itself.
Because surgery involves doctors slicing through nerve endings in order to cut out that tissue, itâs likely to cause patients more pain in the long run. Often, doctors attempt these surgeries multiple times.
Scientists have known about the different categories of endometriosis for a decade, but they have only received funding for further research in the past five years. And it is only recently that endometriosis has been taken more seriously: Historically, many doctors have not believed patients who report their pain, despite nearly 40 percent of people with endometriosis reporting pain so severe it has resulted in an emergency room visit, according to a 2020 U.K. study...
