Have you ever heard of
- Adenomyosis?
- PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)? Or,
- Endometriosis?
Whilst menstrual cycles are being discussed now more than any time in history, why is it that…
- More than 50% of women never get diagnosed?
- It takes 7 to 12 years for many women to get diagnosed?
- Most women only find out they have a problem when they go to have a baby?
The simple answer is that many of these conditions are only found during surgery.
But, we believe that many women that suffer from irregular or abnormal periods begin to accept that it is just the way that it is… but it doesn’t have to be!
Today, I wanted to share a few things with you so that you can think about your cycle and identify whether or not something that is going on is a hormonal imbalance or caused by a bacterial overgrowth in your gut microbiome that you never realised could be connected.
I am going to walk you through these most common diagnoses that accounts for 22% of women in Australia, that 50% of women don’t realise they have.
Please feel free to share this email with you other friends and family. The reason it takes 7 to 12 years for most women to get diagnosed (if they aren’t trying to conceive) is because of the increased symptoms! I’ll explain as we go through them now…
Endometriosis
Chances are you can think of a friend or family member that suffers from endometriosis. 1 out of 10 women are diagnosed. It’s believed that 2 out of every 10 women are suffering from endometriosis.
Common symptoms are…
- Abdominal pain and severe cramping before bleeding
- Heavy bleeding over the first few days of the cycle
- Gut pain during ovulation
- Pain during sex
- Pelvic pain, when significant, can venture into legs
- Clotty dark blood during periods
- Suffer from UTIs, Thrush, or Bacteria Vaginosis (or had a period where they did)
- Urgency to Pee – often going to the toilet every hour or two
Most women suffering from endometriosis only get diagnosed when they have surgery and endometrium tissue is found along the uterus. We see more patients that have not been diagnosed because their symptoms are extreme during their cycles and they want to get help.
A large majority of doctors recommend birth control, then surgery, and having a baby. Believe it or not, endometriosis has been known to reduce after birth
Interestingly many women suffering from endometriosis actually are suffering from a serious imbalance in their gut flora that is causing the reproductive challenges and blood oxidation challenges.
After hundreds of gastrointestinal tests, we’ve linked several bacteria that are overgrown that present specific to women with endometriosis. We’ve found that when we balance the gut flora and the hormones at the same time, we start to see a significant reduction in symptoms.
PCOS
In their 20s, it’s really common for women with PCOS to go weeks, sometimes months, without bleeding. If you weren’t talking to your girlfriends about what their periods are like, you probably would’t think anything of it. Many women don’t!
Now when she does get her period, still in her 20s, it may be just for a few days. In her 30s, she may find she’ll bleed for longer periods of time. But it’s as she gets close to her 40s, should she not suffer any of the other symptoms (I’ll break down in just a moment), that she realises that something isn’t quite right with her cycle.
She bleeds very heavily. Often she’ll be on her cycle from six weeks, then she’ll stop bleeding for one week, then it starts all over again.
More often then not, women with PCOS realise they have PCOS because it’s so difficult to lose weight, they have excessive hair growth and often grow facial hair.
They have a combination of oestrogen dominance, high androgens (the female testosterone hormone), and insulin resistance. This causes them to store fat and the high androgens increase the testosterone in the body which causes the facial hair and excessive hair growth.
Often the cause of these hormonal imbalances is something called SIBO. Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth. Bacterial overgrowth is linked to the stimulation of the hormonal imbalances. It’s very common for our PCOS patients to suffer from bowel movements that “are all over the place” as many of them say…
Adenomyosis
Adenomyosis occurs most often late in the childbearing years and typically disappears after menopause.
Sometimes, adenomyosis may cause heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding, severe cramping, pain during intercourse, or blood clots that pass during a period.
Adenomyosis presents very similar to endometriosis, with the exception of the heavy bleeding and that many patients also present with anaemia.
Like endometriosis, adenomyosis often presents with reproductive hormone imbalances, bacteria infections, pelvic pain and gut pain.
We often see 4 key reasons women suffer from adenomyosis:
- Low Iron Levels combined with Nutrient Malabsorption
- Overgrowth of Bad Bacteria
- Low Oestrogen, Low Progesterone, and Poor Prostaglandin Function
- Poor Cellular Function or Poor Blood Oxidation
What’s fascinating is that nearly all of our patients suffering from menstrual cycle issues have a significant imbalance in their gut flora.
They also have a very sensitive health constitution, which works to their benefit! We find that our patients suffering from menstrual issues are very responsive to nutrient intervention!
Our approach to supporting our patients is:
FIRST: Balance the reproductive hormones!
If you can imagine that your reproductive hormones are like a blazing fire. With time, they can become like the large bushfires we had last year. This is often why it takes 7-12 years for endometriosis patients to get diagnosed – it takes a “bushfire” type of pain to go to the hospital.
We first look to support the hormones to calm down that fire! At our first treatment, we’re looking to calm down the symptoms and to start to balance the hormones.
SECOND: Address the Bad “Stimulant Bacteria” Overgrowth
We use a “Weed, Seed, Feed” approach when it comes to the gut microbiome.
We need to weed out that bad bacteria so that we can calm down all the problems it’s causing within the body.
We spend the majority of our treatment with you addressing the gut issues, as once we inoculate the bad bacteria in the gut microbiome, we calm the hormonal balances simultaneously.
Once we are able to weed out the bad bacteria, we then seed the good bacteria to support healthy, balanced gut flora.
Then we feed your gut microbiome so that it can flourish.
FINALLY: Identify & Correct the Root Cause to Prevent Further Flare Ups
Most people don’t realise that gut dysbiosis more than likely has been created by a malabsorption issue or nutrient deficiency.
There could be a genetic mutation that is in the family, or, there was a major “mucous” event that distorted your gut flora and created this bacteria overgrowth, or, there could have been a period where you were on and off of antibiotics.
At the end of our process, we do further testing to look at what is happening with your nutrient levels. From there, we are able to quickly identify what we need to do now with your nutrition and nutrients to support your body get what it needs.
Some of our patients have to eat a certain way. Others need to take a supplement to give their body an extra boost of a specific nutrient that it isn’t naturally retaining.
This is an important part of the process because when you feel better, we want you to stay that way! Not make this a recurring event.
Many of our patients find that with naturopathic medicine, they are able to come off of birth control. After a month or two of treatment, many of our patients need to be extra careful because they become so very fertile.
We find menstrual conditions to be especially interesting because of the unique complexities in the cases. It’s never just hormones, there’s several things going on all in one go!
If you or someone you care about is suffering from a menstrual related concern, we’d love to support you! You can book in a Free Introductory Consultation with us here:
Let us discuss your specific symptoms and how we can support you.
Looking forward to connecting again soon.
Kindest Regards,
Tiaan
