Estrogen to blame? Study: Period pain, pelvic pain, migraines linked to endometriosis
Attention young women, if you have symptoms such as strong menstrual pain, pelvic pain, sexual intercourse pain, infertility, etc., may it be a precursor to endometriosis? ! Endometriosis is called an “enigmatic disease” by some, and its true cause is still unclear. Possible causes include autoimmune diseases, reflux of menstrual blood, or genetic factors.
However, although there are many opinions on the cause of endometriosis, it may cause specific changes in the body before it occurs? “Frontiers in Endocrinology” published a study claiming that when women experience “migraine”, it may be a warning sign of endometriosis, and there is a high probability of uterine adenoma as a comorbidity.
Are strong menstrual pain, pelvic pain combined with “migraine” a sign of endometriosis?
Sun Yat-sen University in China recruited 167 patients with clinically confirmed endometriosis (experimental group) and 190 patients with benign gynecological diseases (control group) for the study. In addition, the team also selected 41 patients with uterine adenoma as an experimental subgroup. All women completed a migraine diagnostic questionnaire, and endometriosis severity was assessed using American Society for Reproductive Medicine (rASRM) criteria.
The team conducted a preliminary analysis of the subjects and found that the prevalence of migraine in the experimental group was 29.9% and that in the control group was 12.1%. Even though the age, age at menarche, and BMI of the two groups were similar, compared with the control group, the proportion of menstrual pain and chronic pelvic pain in the experimental group was higher, 67% vs. 37.4%, and 27.5% vs. 13.7%, respectively.
In addition, compared with subjects with uterine adenoma alone, those with comorbid endometriosis and uterine adenoma had a higher chance of migraine (9.8% and 44.9% respectively). The subjects had migraine before the experiment. There were no precursors to migraine. The data showed that there was no significant difference in the frequency of menstrual pain and chronic pelvic pain between the two.
Why are migraines related to uterine disease? Is estrogen the key?
Why are migraines and endometriosis related? The research team’s answer is that the key may lie in women’s “estrogen.” Past studies have found that there is a clear connection between estrogen and migraines. For example, menopausal women receiving estrogen treatment and women taking oral contraceptives are all related to the occurrence of migraines. In addition, the prevalence of migraines in women is higher than that in men, which may also be related to estrogen.
Estrogen is believed to affect the operation of human neural networks, affecting pain perception by regulating a variety of neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine, beta-endorphin and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), etc. At the same time, it is known through clinical research that endometriosis is an “estrogen-dependent” disease, and excessive estrogen synthesis may be one of the causes of endometriosis.
Is invasion of endometrial cells from the outside more likely to cause uterine fibroids?
The research team emphasized that more and more studies support that endometrial symptoms occur “from the outside in”, which means that endometriosis cells may not only invade the pelvic cavity and cause endometriosis, but also invade the uterine wall. More likely to increase the prevalence of uterine adenomas. If more rigorous clinical trials can be conducted in the future, migraine may be included in the promotion focus of preventing uterine adenoma.
Sun Yat-sen University claimed in the study that when patients with endometriosis experience symptoms such as menstrual pain and pelvic pain, they are easily confused with other gynecological diseases. Therefore, the diagnosis of endometriosis is often delayed or misdiagnosed. The team believes that further exploration of the pathological mechanisms of endometriosis/uterine fibroids and migraine may be beneficial to the diagnostic procedures of related gynecological diseases.
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