Everything You Need to Know About Endometriosis: Part II
Caroline Ashurst
Video
26 min
4.7 rating on App Stores
00:00:00 Today again, we're talking about endometriosis. We're going to be talking about causes, current technology and treatment from a Western allopathic standpoint and how it's treated from an integrative, functional standpoint. And we're going to jump into the causes. So most commonly it's found genetically with a family history. And uh, what's true is that the tissue is actually laid out in the womb of a baby, uh, in utero. So endometriosis tissue is
00:00:28 the womb of a baby, uh, in utero. So endometriosis tissue is formed very early in utero, which also indicates there is a strong genetic imprint relating to, uh, this diagnosis. I do believe that trauma and ancestral trauma, epigenetic trauma plays a huge role in endometriosis. It is a big challenge for women plays a huge role in endometriosis. It is a big challenge for women of color. Women in the black community are endometriosis and fibroids runs rampant in their community,
00:01:10 and I believe that there is a huge part of this that has to do with environmental racism, where people who are of color and living in places that aren't as healthy to live. And I believe there's a component of ancestral trauma, and it's kind of like one of those things where it's like a switch. So, um, these lesions, like I said, things where it's like a switch. So, um, these lesions, like I said, they're laid out in utero, but they can either regress spontaneously or they can progress into bigger lesions depending on additional factors.
00:01:44 So this is kind of like the same reason why. It's just like why do I have fertility challenges. And somebody else who eats whatever they want, you know, does whatever they want. It's a really unhealthy lifestyle. One of the most frustrating parts for my clients is seeing people they're friends with get pregnant who take significantly people they're friends with get pregnant who take significantly less care of their body. We all have these genetic light
00:02:06 switches that go off depending on what triggers in our environment. Um. Go on. So, you know, stress can be a trigger. Um, stress, you know, is a trigger for many hormonal dysregulation, uh, issues because it impacts, uh, our estrogen and progesterone. It also, um, raises our cortisol levels, which impacts estrogen and progesterone. raises our cortisol levels, which impacts estrogen and progesterone. Uh, there are many other pieces about that.
00:02:35 And, you know, we could go more into that, but we're going to stick to the endometriosis. But so, uh, you know, certain factors can create this seed of endometriosis into being a severe case or an insignificant case. Right? So lifestyle. Again, we're talking about access to a healthy environment. If you live in a place like a big city where there's lots of pollution. If you live in a place like a big city where there's lots of pollution. There's more of a chance you're going to have symptomatology, and
00:03:04 you're going to have a more extreme, severe incidence of this diagnosis. Um, any kind of toxicant exposure. And we're surrounded by toxicants. We're talking about new carpet beds. We're talking about flame retardants that are in our clothing and fabrics. Um, in our couches. We're talking about, you know, scented candles, uh, and we're We're talking about, you know, scented candles, uh, and we're talking about, you know, toxins from, uh, industry in our environment, in our air quality cars. So that's another thing that can
00:03:41 impact this. Um, and again, we're looking at this long game of diagnosis, and, uh, we want to try and, you know, diagnose diagnosis sooner than later. So. So again causes environmental toxins and water food, So again causes environmental toxins and water food, air products were exposed to. Um, and one thing we should really talk about is plastics, because plastics have something called xenoestrogens in them. They're a chemical and many things
00:04:17 have xenoestrogens in them, by the way, not just plastics. Xenoestrogens behave like estrogen in the body. They actually latch onto estrogen receptors in the body. They actually latch onto estrogen receptors in the body. So even though they're not technically estrogen, they behave like estrogen and our body responds like they are excess estrogen. So if we're flooding our body with all this excess estrogen, we're exacerbating our fertility issues. And if we have endometriosis,
00:04:46 we're exacerbating that. So we want to avoid plastics at all costs. Um. So okay. Exposures like toxicants cause all costs. Um. So okay. Exposures like toxicants cause general hormone dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and all of these things contribute to fertility issues. So another thing is eating foods in high in phytoestrogens. So we talked about xenoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are in foods. And they're also they act like estrogen but they're not actually actually estrogen.
00:05:26 So what foods have phytoestrogens in them. Soy. Soy is the number one. So what foods have phytoestrogens in them. Soy. Soy is the number one. So this is one of the reasons why, uh, I usually shy away from you know, I encourage women to eat animal protein for numbers of reasons. But one of the reasons is that soy is, uh, has xenoestrogens. So our body thinks that we have all this estrogen floating around our body, and it dysregulates our hormonal balance. The other thing that happens is that soy is an anti-nutrient,
00:05:58 The other thing that happens is that soy is an anti-nutrient, meaning that soy blocks you from absorbing other nutrients when you ingest it. We don't want that. That's like wasting our money. Especially if you eat really healthy and then you throw tofu on your meal. It's like once in a while, it's okay, but it should not be a main source or regular source of protein. Soy was never intended to be used as a foodstuff. Soy was actually a an industrial, uh, used as a foodstuff. Soy was actually a an industrial, uh,
00:06:32 production for soybean oil, which was never supposed to be ingested. Do not ever eat soybean oil. Uh, soy is also, you know, because it's, you know, an industrial food. It's sprayed with pesticides. It's not organic. If you do get it organic, it still has phytoestrogens in it. It still is an anti-nutrient. There's only one way you can get around this, and if you have fermented organic soy, which would be tempeh, fermented organic soy, which would be tempeh,
00:07:04 not seitan, that's wheat. Temp. Temp could be a, uh, could be what you take. However, you still have phytoestrogen, uh, phytoestrogens happening in there. So I don't recommend any kind of soy product except for soy sauce, because it's such a minimal amount. Um, and FYI, I think people in Western culture think that a lot of Asian cultures ingest soy, Western culture think that a lot of Asian cultures ingest soy, and they actually don't. If you go to countries in Asia,
00:07:34 people don't really eat soy. They don't really eat tofu. Okay, I'm done with my rant about soy. Um, okay. So we want to talk about current technology. Diagnostics and treatment. Next. So 2 to 32% of women of reproductive age undergoing laparoscopy, uh, are undergoing laparoscopy to determine the cause of pelvic pain. That's a third 9 to 50% of women determine the cause of pelvic pain. That's a third 9 to 50% of women undergoing undergoing laparoscopy for infertility,
00:08:05 versus 6% of women undergoing laparoscopy with no past infertility. 50% of teenagers undergoing laparoscopy for evaluation of chronic pain and dysmenorrhea. So, as you can see, a very large swath of the public is having symptoms. I believe that there's some crazy number, uh, I believe that there's some crazy number, uh, there's a very high incidence of endometriosis in our culture. There's a very high percentage of its occurrence.
00:08:36 And I don't remember it right now. Uh, but I will say that that is only diagnosed. Think about how many women have it and aren't diagnosed. I think it's almost like somewhere between 20 to 30% of the population has it. I will add this to the bottom in the notes so that we have the I will add this to the bottom in the notes so that we have the correct information. Okay. So the way that we diagnose, uh, endometriosis in this country is like very frustrating.
00:09:11 I was just doing research for this and I saw someone one resource said that, uh, laparoscopic surgery is a non-invasive, minimally invasive procedure. I disagree. I disagree, I'll tell you why. So. The the real the gold standard here in the US to actually diagnose is. Laparoscopic excision surgery. So laparoscopy is when they go in with a tiny little camera and they look around and look at the tissue and do exploratory surgery. They look and see what's there. And then they excise it. So excision surgery is where
00:09:54 they like. It's a specific way that they take the tissue out where they don't harm the other tissue. Very important. the tissue out where they don't harm the other tissue. Very important. Do not get any surgery unless it is this. If you decide to opt for surgery. Um, this is an invasive technique. They have to, you know, they have to cut, like, little incisions in your abdomen and go in to your abdominal cavity. I don't call that minimally invasive. I also don't call the recovery
00:10:25 time in minimally invasive. It's up to two weeks in bed. So you really have to plan for this and it takes a long time. So you really have to plan for this and it takes a long time. You know, you have to first find a really good provider. You might have to travel for them because you really want to find someone that specializes in this. If you decide to do it, they specialize in endometriosis, laparoscopic excision surgery. They have to have many, many, many good reviews.
00:10:50 So you go and meet them for your initial consult, and then it might take you months to get booked for the surgery. They might not be able to do all of the excision based upon how They might not be able to do all of the excision based upon how much is there. Um, so anyway, I don't call it minimally invasive. Okay, so there are other things that you can do before this. So one thing that I do, if I see that there are symptoms for somebody is I give them it's
00:11:14 a very inexpensive lab test that I add to their lab order. That's for a protein called ca125. That protein typically indicates if there's cancer in the body when it's at certain levels, but at lower levels it can indicate that there's endometriosis. but at lower levels it can indicate that there's endometriosis. So I use that as like maybe an initial like question. Another thing that you can do is uterine ultrasound can be diagnostic, but only depending on the education of your technician, the experience of
00:11:46 them, the accuracy of their work and the quality of their work. And it also depends on how much endometriosis is actually present in the body. So it has to be a pretty severe condition or specific type, so an ultrasound can show large condition or specific type, so an ultrasound can show large clumps of tissue or scarring. It can show endometriosis, endometrial tissue that has formed cyst chocolate cysts, which are endometriomas. It can show deeply infiltrating
00:12:13 endometriosis. We talked about that like the really like I believe that was like category three or maybe stage three. Um, which is when the endometriosis endometrial tissue grows into the bladder or the bowel. It's very invasive thickening of the bladder or the bowel. It's very invasive thickening of the tissue in one area, abdominal fallopian tubes. It can show you if the fallopian tubes have some endometriosis. Endometriosis. Endometriosis. Endometrial tissue on it and then
00:12:48 blocked or fluid filled spaces between the uterus and the rectum. Another thing I wanted to mention to you, which I apologize, is that I forgot one of the symptoms for endometriosis. It's bowel disruption. I forgot one of the symptoms for endometriosis. It's bowel disruption. So constipation diarrhea back and forth between the 2 or 1 or the other. Um that will also show up. So you might have a diagnosis of IBS. Irritable bowel syndrome. But it could actually be endometriosis. Okay. Get ready to be pissed off. So.
00:13:24 Right now, uh, we just completely eradicated our National Institute of Right now, uh, we just completely eradicated our National Institute of Health, uh, Foundation research, scientific research, which does not benefit anyone. And specifically women's health, because we are already behind in women's health research. We are already behind. We've put men on the moon, yet we haven't figured out a least invasive, a less invasive way of testing for endometriosis. Like wrap your head around that,
00:13:55 wrap your head around that. UK. In the UK is a test called the wrap your head around that. UK. In the UK is a test called the Zweig zweig endo test. It is a saliva test that looks at over 100 micro RNA sequences in the saliva to diagnose endometriosis that is minimally invasive, and that is as mentally minimally invasive as we should have. So this is available in the UK. There were French developers and scientists who came up with this. We are behind here in the US and it is absolutely unacceptable in
00:14:28 We are behind here in the US and it is absolutely unacceptable in Australia. Researchers recently successfully created a blood test diagnosis. Uh, there's still in figuring, you know, figuring out how much is this going to cost. And, you know, in the early stages, there's also a woman here in the US who has figured out a way to diagnose it from menstrual blood, which makes sense. Like, why hasn't that happened already? It makes you, makes you think.
00:14:59 Why hasn't that happened already? Well, hopefully this is going to be Why hasn't that happened already? Well, hopefully this is going to be available here in the US sometime soon because I, number one, do not want my clients having to go through months of surgery and recovery in order to get pregnant. We need them to get pregnant way faster than that and I'm here for that. Okay, so those are really diagnostically the only ways. Oh, there's one more thing. There's one other minimally
00:15:25 invasive way to diagnose. But it is again, not the gold standard. It does not tell you, you know, not the gold standard. It does not tell you, you know, how many of your tissues are involved, how bad it is. Um, there is a test that a lot of doctors at reproductive endocrinology clinics, fertility clinics do. It's called the Receptiva test. Receptiva test. It will test for two different things. It will test you for
00:15:52 endometriosis and endometritis. Endometritis is inflammation of the endometrium. It is not the same as endometriosis. the endometrium. It is not the same as endometriosis. It's important to know if you do have that though, because then you have usually a gut bacterial imbalance. You have inflammation there. There's something happening. We want to treat that. Um, but I have a client who found out that she had endometriosis from the Receptiva test. She is one of my like.
00:16:21 I'm so happy with her story. Uh, her husband had a, uh. He could not ejaculate because he was born without a vas deferens, He could not ejaculate because he was born without a vas deferens, so they had to do IVF. And after working with me, she got really good results. Got pregnant the first time after two failed IVF and no viable embryos, she got five high quality, uh, uh, viable embryos that were tested genetically to be, you know, viable. And the first time she tested she the first time she transferred.
00:16:59 After she did her work together, she got pregnant. She now has a son. After she did her work together, she got pregnant. She now has a son. Uh, however, she is somebody who got that done. And, you know, before that had never been diagnosed with it. Um, but here's to say again that you can get pregnant if you have endometriosis. Um, and there's ways to do it. So that's a great segue. We're going to segue into treatment. So treatment different. Uh, the theory differs for
00:17:27 treatment from a Western allopathic medicine perspective in an treatment from a Western allopathic medicine perspective in an integrative medicine perspective. Really Western allopathic is like let's shut down the hormones, let's take out the endometriosis. Um, while I agree that it could be very good to take out the tissue if you have a severe, um, you know, stage or like, um, you know, like a stage that probably three, four. Absolutely. And maybe even 2 To or one. Really. That's not my scope of practice.
00:17:59 That's for you to, you know, investigate with a provider. That's for you to, you know, investigate with a provider. But, um, really, the Western thing is like, pull it out, suppress. So what that looks like is laparoscopic surgery. We talked about and, um, and that, you know, like I said, I'm, I think that's helpful for some women. I think it's necessary for some women. And this can help with hormonal function, implantation, healthy pregnancy.
00:18:25 If you think about there being tissue covering up the ovaries, if there's tissue covering up your ovaries, you can't actually get signals. tissue covering up your ovaries, you can't actually get signals. You can't get cellular signaling from your brain about your hormones. Then you can't ovulate correctly. You won't have your hormones locking into the, you know, receptors. So from a very structural standpoint, it might be necessary. Um, but the question is, is it going to prevent it from coming back. Right.
00:18:54 What's going to prevent it from coming back. So the Western approach is the pill or Lupron, So the Western approach is the pill or Lupron, because both of these can shut down hormonal production of the ovaries. It shuts down estrogen production. It's a very serious drug. And um. It's also, you know, it's not a long term, uh, plan for someone who's trying to get pregnant. Right. We need your hormones to operate. So it's not really a good plan for someone who's trying to get pregnant.
00:19:24 So it's not really a good plan for someone who's trying to get pregnant. It's not a good plan for anyone. Um, it really just stops symptoms. We need to get to the root, but it might prevent them from being pain and things like that. Um, so anyway, the integrative approaches, as usual, are our goal is to get to the root of the problem of why is exacerbated. And again, like I said earlier, these lesions could either regress spontaneously or progress into bigger lesions depending on additional factors.
00:19:56 So we need to figure out what's exacerbating them. And our general goal for endometriosis treatment is reduce, And our general goal for endometriosis treatment is reduce, repair and prevent. And this is where integrative and functional medicine shines. So repair again that could include laparoscopic excision surgery. But also repairing the tissue can be done with arvigo Mayan abdominal massage. It breaks up adhesions. Adhesions are again when two like parts of our insides stick
00:20:28 together from fibrin deposits. Um that's caused by trauma in together from fibrin deposits. Um that's caused by trauma in the body. Inflammation. Um, castor oil packs are really amazing for, um, helping treat abdominal adhesions. And I recommend them. They also are very detoxifying. And one of the things that's really important to know is that detoxification is a huge part of fertility, and especially endometriosis, because our liver is what's in charge of detoxifying
00:20:57 endometriosis, because our liver is what's in charge of detoxifying excess estrogen from our body. It goes through our liver. So we really want to support our liver in detoxing out excess floating estrogen in our body. So castor oil packs are a great way to do that. Some supplements have been shown to success in reducing and eliminating fibrin deposits in the body. They are very specific in how they should be used. You need to be using them under the treatment of somebody who's
00:21:29 You need to be using them under the treatment of somebody who's educated about it. So I'm not going to share the name of that now. That's something I talk to some of my clients about, depending on what, like what the severity level is for them and what their timeline is, because you cannot try to get pregnant while you're on that specific supplement. Um, so repairing is also, you know, uh, linked in to reducing and preventing. So we need to detox. Like I said,
00:21:56 preventing. So we need to detox. Like I said, avoid the natural triggers, balance hormones, treat the pain and break up the adhesions. Right. So first we test what's happening in your blood labs. Right. Are we seeing toxicants? Are we seeing nutrient depletion. Are you having histamine symptoms. These are very common with endometriosis. And we want to address that if that's what's happening. If you're having um you know this immune response like a
00:22:26 heightened immune response. How is your gut how is your heightened immune response. How is your gut how is your nutrition. Are you being exposed to xenoestrogens like what's in your household? Right. We're talking about the toxicants earlier in our household products. And then an anti anti-inflammatory inflammatory nutrition plan is like the gold standard with endometriosis. It includes lots of fresh vegetables, especially dark leafy greens like kale, collards, broccoli,
00:22:53 Brussels sprouts and fresh fruits, especially berries, each day. But you want to cook your food except for the berries. But you want to cook your food except for the berries. You want to cook and warm your food. That's a Chinese medicine tip. We don't want to put cold food in the body. Um, and there are some triggers that, uh, for the anti-inflammatory, uh, nutritional plan. And they would be dairy. Dairy really exacerbates and triggers inflammation in the body.
00:23:22 Gluten and gluten containing products. And most sugar. Sometimes people have real sensitivity to corn. So you can try and see how you react to corn. So you can try and see how you react to corn. Does it exacerbate your symptoms? Do you feel any other kind of symptoms after you eat it? Does it affect your belly? Do you get headaches or aches in your body? Corn can be very triggering because it's a it's a specific
00:23:43 grain that can affect this. Um, red meat is only tolerated if it's grass fed, organic and all fish should be wild and other meats should be organic and free range. Um, another piece to this is blood sugar regulation. Because when your blood sugar is dysregulated, then it increases your cortisol levels, which then dysregulated, then it increases your cortisol levels, which then increases your estrogen levels. So we really want to get our, uh, nervous system regulated. We want to have your mood be pretty,
00:24:12 like, straightforward. Um, and. The estrogen progesterone balance is really big. Um, I recommend one tablespoon of ground flax a day that helps your body excrete excess estrogen. You want to drink a good amount of water when you do that, though, um, because it can bind you up if you do not drink enough water with it. Um, turmeric or curcumin is really helpful for battling inflammation. You want to make sure that it is a liposomal application, which means it's a liquid in oil has to be fat soluble. Because.
00:24:58 Curcumin is fat soluble, so you need to ingest it with fat. Uh. Curcumin is fat soluble, so you need to ingest it with fat. Uh. Magnesium glycinate is really helpful as a supplement. Um, and then depending on what is happening for you individually, you know, whether, what kind of gut restoration you need. Probiotics are very helpful. And there are some other strategies that I utilize with my clients in terms of really firming up the that I utilize with my clients in terms of really firming up the
00:25:32 anti-inflammatory nutritional plan. Um, coffee can be really triggering for, uh, endometriosis. And you might want to detoxify off of coffee. And if you have any questions or anything, please reach out. Till we see each other again, thanks so much for watching.
