The pain of endometriosis can derail your entire day, interfering with work, school, and your regular activities. While there’s no cure for the condition, you have options to help ease symptoms. Medications can provide relief from endometriosis-related pain. There are also things you can do right now to get control of painful symptoms.
Understanding endometriosis
Gynecologist and women’s health specialist Dr. Lori Davidson uses the latest evidence-based treatment options for endometriosis. A combination of effective treatment and lifestyle changes can significantly improve your endometriosis symptoms.
Endometriosis happens when tissue that normally lines the womb grows in other areas of the body. Each month when your body stimulates the uterine lining to shed, the extra tissue becomes stimulated as well. This can cause swelling, bleeding, and excruciating pain. If you’re dealing with endometriosis, we’ve put together some things you can do to help relieve painful symptoms.
Try yoga
You needn’t be an advanced enthusiast or certified practitioner to benefit from yoga, a group of exercises that involve holding the body in specific positions. Yoga incorporates breathing, relaxation, stretching, and mindfulness. For women with endometriosis, yoga can ease painful symptoms.
Focus on poses that engage your core, pelvis, and abdominal muscles. These types of poses are particularly beneficial for relieving pain and discomfort associated with endometriosis.
Limit caffeine
If you typically start your day by grabbing a cub of your favorite java, you may want to cut back on your caffeine intake. While caffeine is generally safe, there are reasons to limit it when you have a flare-up. Caffeine can promote inflammation, which can contribute to or worsen endometriosis pain.
Substances in coffee are also known to irritate the digestive system, which is bad news when you’re having endometriosis pain.
Try meditation
Today, it may seem there aren’t enough hours in the day. While most people are always on the go, it’s important not to underestimate the power of being still. That’s where meditation comes in. The mind and body are intimately intertwined, one having influence over the other.
Regularly practicing mindfulness meditation reduces pain and provides relief from various pain syndromes. It does this by activating areas in the brain that influence pain perception. Mindfulness meditation incorporates breathing and focus with reduced external awareness. It’s simple to perform and becomes easier with practice.
Cut back on alcohol
Heading to a happy hour for a few cocktails after work with your colleagues is a typical way to end a long workday. For a woman with endometriosis, a carefree evening out with pals can quickly turn into a night of pain. Alcohol has been shown to increase estrogen levels and promote inflammation, both of which can make endometriosis pain worse.
A glass of wine here and there is unlikely to cause problems; but if you aren’t careful, too much alcohol can spell trouble.
Get active
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that exercise provides a wide variety of health benefits. It may surprise you to know that exercise can relieve endometriosis pain. It may feel like the last thing you want to do when coping with pelvic pain, but getting plenty of exercise may help control symptoms.
Exercise can stimulate the body’s pain-relieving chemicals. It can also improve the strength of your pelvic floor muscles. Pilates, a fitness system that incorporates low-impact strength and flexibility movements, conditions muscles, improves balance, and eases pain.
Try an anti-inflammatory diet
Inflammation plays a role in endometriosis pain and a diet to lower inflammation may be key to fighting the pain associated with endometriosis. An anti-inflammatory diet limits foods that provoke inflammation like processed foods and junk foods; and it incorporates foods known to lower inflammation and dampen the body’s pain response. Fruits, vegetables, fish, olive oil, nuts and seeds are a core part of an anti-inflammatory diet.
If you have tried the lifestyle changes suggested above and are still suffering from endometriosis, Dr. Davidson may prescribe a medication called ORILISSA. ORILISSA is an FDA-approved pill specifically developed to manage moderate to severe endometriosis pain.
ORILISSA is not for everyone but Dr. Davidson would be happy to discuss this or other options will you.
The symptoms of endometriosis can negatively impact your quality of life. For effective treatment and compassionate care, call our Greenwood, Indiana, office (317-893-3131) to schedule an appointment with Dr. Davidson. You can also send an email from our Contact Us page and a member of our medical staff will contact you.