I have just spotted this article in today's Daily Mail newspaper. For ladies who haven't seen it yet please see below:
'Statins the cholesterol-lowering drugs, could be used to treat endometriosis.
Around two million women in Britain have the condition, in which tissue that is normally found on the lining of the womb grows elsewhere. The tissue goes through the same process of thickening and shedding, but has no way of leaving the body, leading to pain, swelling and sometimes fertility problems.
Current treatments include painkillers, hormone treatment and surgery. Statins have also been found to have anti-inflammatory effects and it's thought they may help lessen the pain in women with endometriosis.
In a pilot trial at Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada, women will take a statin drug, pravastatin sodium, daily for 3 months.'
Maybe we should 'watch this space'? You never know!
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Bokkie
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Wow - that's really very interesting! Make me wonder, is there a link between endo and bad cholesterol because that's what this would imply? I know oestrogen likes to sit in the fat around the tummy, oestrogen drives endo as we all know and maybe endo girls are perhaps more prone to bad fat collection no matter what are actual size or build - although that doesn't really explain why so many women who have endo are or were very slim when younger, even skinny, as young girls and why young very slim girls get endo (it has been documented, somewhere)..
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I know I was very skinny until my late 20s ...but then again, the bigger my middle has become over the years, the worse my endo symptoms have become. I actually can't recall whether I stopped exercising due to endo pain or whether I just got lazy first. It's a mix of both for me, if I am being honest. A desk job where it was frowned upon if you got up to make one too many cups of tea did me no good, I felt I hate to be stationary all day, was awful!
This is why I am really trying to lose weight at the moment, but with pain and limping from ovarian cysts, its a massive challenge. Even though I am a size 10, I was always a 6/8 (which I hated, by the way, and was always given a hard time, mainly by larger women - with them implying I didn't eat, which I always did, skinniness runs in my family and we all eat alot but eat well - but that's another debate, women being cruel to other women over each others size is so so low..) anyway, any weight gain I do have sits on my middle which isn't good no matter what actual 'dress size' you are.
And familial high cholesterol runs in my family, and a few of us have endo too, makes this article more interesting to me.
Very interesting and such a puzzler. Thanks for sharing and sorry for the mini rant - it just raises some of these issues in my head
Seen too many people try them, suffer greatly and give up - and they don't have to battle endo at the same time. On this one - I'll pass.
Others can try it if they want to , but i shan't.
I am also now in the age bracket where the Docs are pushing statin use hard on all their patients. I am not budging yet.
Dr Kenrick stated the following about statins:
"A Dutch survey of 4,738 statin users asked about side effects. Just over a quarter (27%) said they suffered from them. Around 40% of these sufferers experienced muscle pain and almost a third (31%) had joint pain. It also reported that 16% had digestion problems and 13% had memory loss.
Other research shows patients who had definite or probable side effects tended to be dismissed by their doctors who denied any specific statin-linked side effects and failed to appreciate the effect on their life.
Women and statins
To date, no large trial of women statin users who already have cardiovascular disease has been shown to increase life expectancy by one day. More importantly, the use of statins in women at lower risk has not increased life expectancy nor prevented heart attacks and stroke.
It raises the question whether women should be prescribed statins at all. I believe that the answer is no. Statins fail to provide any overall health benefit in women. The more recent heart protection study was hailed as a success for men and women, but despite the hype there was no effect on mortality in women. "
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13% reported memory loss - add that to the memory loss I sustained with zoladex and there is not a cat in hells chance I would risk any further loss of my memory function on any drugs.
The FDA acknowleged memory loss, and UK research has backed that up with research done on rats. Add to that the thousands and thousands of anecdotal reports from statin users about the side effects and I am in no hurry at all to let a statin anywhere near me.
Do your homework - just like with GnRH - and weigh up the known risks before you opt to try out statins specfically for the endo. It's only being prescribed in the trials in the same way that GnRH drugs are used - as a possible way to reduce pain - but it won't alter the underlying problems caused by endo.
Lets hope that an honest report is produced when the trial is over so that women can make an informed decision as to whether to try it or not. That is if it is deemed suitable and made available in the first place. I personally do not know anything about statins myself and because of the awful side effects I have experienced from other treatments I have received in the past, I definitely will not try any new treatment without relevant information (warts and all) in the future! However, we all know that what doesn't work for some is a God-send for others though....No medication will 'cure' Endo but some people just want something that works for the pain and might be interested in new possibilities.
The big thing at the moment is trying to find new uses for existing drugs so companies don't have to develop new ones (this is much more expensive). Statins might have some impact by reducing inflammation as they say but again it is still only treating symptoms and not the underlying cause of the condition. Until more research is done on this there won't be satisfactory treatments.
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xx
Endo stage 4 private or nhs? 
I’ve had an MRI scan which has come back normal, does it now mean I likely don’t have endometriosis? Looking for answers and help.
Anyone had a successful pregnancy that was painful? 
Amitriptyline for Endometriosis - what’s your experience? 
