Links between endometriosis and high cholesterol- any thoughts or experiences?

[grumpy_girl]

Hi all, I have severe endo (ovarian chocolate cysts, endo on bowel etc) but touch wood, so far don't suffer from much pain. Due to infertility, I've now had 3 laps, none of which have had any permanent helpful effects! However recently, I've also been found to have high cholesterol. Note, I am not on any drugs for endo. I've done a bit of web research & found a couple of studies that found higher cholesterol levels in women with endo, so am wondering whether others have experience of this & if so, how have you been treated? Has anyone found a specialist or doctor that will talk about both, as in my experience I've been sent off to gynae for endo, and a lipid guy for cholesterol & they each want to treat the symptom separately (apart from I won't take statins as am still trying to conceive!). Neither specialist has even asked me about the other condition so they obviously don't see any links but I'm not convinced.

I'd love to know if anyone has also experienced both & has any ideas on how to take on both conditions- am wondering what a endo-cholesterol diet would look like!

[Impatient]

No I don't see any links either - given that high cholesterol is as prevalent in men as it is in women. And endo can be found in every culture, fat and thin women - more so in thin though, and the only possible correlation is that if your fat is stored round the tummy rather than hips or thighs - that is where excess oestrogen is stored which of course feeds the endo, so keeping the tummy fat levels down will help in the battle with endo.

high cholesterol is a combination of genetics and diet...and eating too much salt doesn't help either (I am a crispaholic - so this is my biggest diet challenge to try and cut down.)

Nor would I touch statins with a 10 foot barge pole. Every one I know who went on statins didn't last long because of chronic muscle pains and so on, the only person to stay on them was my Dad and he died young of a massive cardiac arrest. So I don't trust them at all.

Much much more important to adopt a healthier way of life to naturally reduce the cholesterol by altering what you eat and how much of it.

[grumpy_girl]

Here are the articles I've found, pointing to some kind of link between endo and high cholesterol. There is clearly some kind of link, although it seems very unclear what it is.

researchgate.net/publicatio...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... (see page 8 particularly)

I found this link to a person who writes that large sized LDLs (one portion of so-called bad cholesterol) are actually protective, and are found in higher levels at sites of inflammation or injury (I.e. endo).

facebook.com/endometriosis....

Clearly this is why this person believes total cholesterol levels to be higher in patients with endo. However it doesn't appear that the medical community on the whole agrees with this view!

[shukudai]

I have endo but my cholesterol level is normal. I had my health blood test check last year. My endo was officially found last year but I am suffering with pain for years.

[federica]

I have endo, I eat a mediterranean diet full of veg and nearly no fat, but I have border line cholesterol, I was so surprised!!! Of course the GP didn't make any connection and just told me to eat low fat cheese... :/

Thanks for sharing those liks

[Fancydress-girl]

My cholesterol was high when my thyroid had packed in, so it could indicate a problem with your thyroid . Have you been tested for that?

Hope this helps you x

[classiebird]

A cholesterol lowering diet is actually quite similar to d endo diet so I think it's a good idea to try the endo diet, plus an exercise regime (increases hdl lowers ldl) and very recently discovered have porridge every morning. Apparently the porridge changes the bacterial colony in your colon which in turn increases metabolism of cholesterol, which gets released in bile and reabsorbed further down the line.

I'm the opposite of impatient. I'm a firm believer in statins. They have alot of protective properties other then their cholesterol lowering effects and the evidence so far points to them having a positive role to play.

But obviously you want to try the natural way first.

Good luck

[Black_lashes]

I've just spotted your post with interest, as I'm in the same situation. And I am also vegan so haven't consumed any of the 'traditional' dietary causes of high cholesterol for a very long time. I'm currently waiting to see my GP again, after my bloods came back that my thyroid was fine. Whilst Googling, I also discovered a possible link with hormone levels - such as caused by endo. So this wouldn't be experienced by men, and of course there are more than dietary causes for high chol. Will be raising this with my GP when I see them next week.