Does anyone understand the science behind endometriosis and inflammation affecting your immune system? I understand it’s a full body inflammatory disease but not a lot more and am trying to educate myself.
Almost every month during my period I am floored with cold and flu like symptoms. Runny nose, cough, sore throat, headaches. It must be connected to endometriosis and the immune system being low somehow.
Hi Racheyt, your immune system is most certainly affected by endometriosis. What can't be deciphered at the moment is whether an altered immune system at birth causes endo or the other way around. I was diagnosed a year and a half ago at stage 4 through an emergency admission and surgery. But years before that I really suffered having glandular fever, COVID, insect bites etc. Anything inflammatory. Colds would knock me for six. Otherwise I'm very healthy, eat well, exercise and do a lot of weight training. Since I started taking dienogest in combination with desogesterol at the end of Jan I've managed to curb my bleeding for now, had inklings of a cold which have only lasted two days. I couldn't believe it. Something to discuss with my specialist when I see him for excision surgery but the takeaway is you're definitely run down and more research conducted is showing links with deficiency in the immune system even if you are a very healthy person. Hope that helps!
I highly recommend you to read “Heal Endo -An Anti-Inflammatory Approach to Healing from Endometriosis” by Katie Edmonds
Have a look at this lovely xxx
It is connected. Every day my right gland in my neck swells up. It can be triggered by food, others vaping around me, weather (especially a sudden change in weather), stress and tiredness. My throat is the same. I get aches everywhere and my bowels are different every day too despite having a good diet. I have silent GERD too and sinus pain. March is a killer because so many of the pollens from trees are released and I get flu like symptoms. Supplements can help. Plenty of zinc, B vits, vitamin C and D and K help. Cutting out dairy also helps massively especially if you suffered from tonsillitis as a child. I can still have some dairy but non pasteurised and that has made a big difference.
I second what Kamka3110 has said, get the book, highly informative! I’ve been following it since January and have drastically improved my symptoms, I almost can’t believe it/no longer think I might have endo (but the book does say if you follow her advice and symptoms improve then it’s likely endo) anyway…
I do understand the immune system connection! Before I stumbled on endo I had been give multiple other diagnosis from dr with no real help in getting better so had to self educate on a lot of things!
I also get ‘period flu’ and sometimes think I must just be allergic to my periods!!
In the simplest of ways I can come up with…
Imagine you have a cut. This cut represents your ‘immune system’.
You get the cut, it hurts, it bleeds, it’s an open wound that’s now a weak spot on your body and is easily susceptible to further damage/infection and will take some time to repair itself.
Your immune system is the same as the cut, something (and there are ALOT of things that can affect it) has triggered it and it’s become an ‘open wound’ like said cut!
Normal peoples body will repair the cut and it’ll heal itself with no major dramas or issues.
But what if someone rubs sand or dirt or acid into the cut at various points through its healing process? Firstly it’d fucking hurt but most importantly it will delay or even prevent it from healing/recovering properly. The more sand/dirt/acid foreign affairs etc that gets rubbed into it the longer it will take to heal, if it even gets to heal at all!
Endo cells are said foreign affairs! Some people have loads of ‘sand/dirt/acid’ (endo cells) in the ‘cut’ (the immune system) so clearly it’s not going to heal without washing them all away and then cautiously keeping it clean and free from foreign objects entering.
Other people have teeny tiny microscopic amounts in the cut which prevent it from healing fully. It may seem like it’s healing, so the cuts almost healed over but it’s still a little sore and red around the edges because there is something under the skin that’s not quite allowing it to heal and return itself to its normal function.
Other times, the cut (immune system) may of actually begun healing itself and is doing quite well repairing the damage, but then you catch it on a sharp table top or something and voila you have opened it up again (much like an endo flare up) making it susceptible to re-infection from foreign objects.
You can of course clean the cut out, but who’s to say you won’t get another cut elsewhere at another point in life? And there are good things you can rub into the cut to help aid the healing of it. But ultimately if you still have endo cells it’s likely not to fully recover.
So if your immune system is a cut, the endo cells are all the things that could prevent it from healing, so the sand/dirt/acid, table you catch it on etc.
On top of this. Endo might not be working alone. So for example, you’ve got a cut ( weakened immune system) and you’ve got some dirt (endo cells) in it. It’s doing ok, it’s just about managing, not getting worse but not healing. So essentially it’s got a scab, no more dirt can get in at the moment, it’s maintaining the same amount of infection in a closed circuit. Well what if someone decides to pick that scab off, and make the cut a lot bigger. This ‘re-opening’ would represent something else that’s not endo that triggers the immune system such as stress, allergic reaction, other cold/flu etc etc. Well now the original small cut, that was doing ok with small amounts of dirt, is a lot bigger which means a lot more dirt (endo) can enter it. The cut (immune system) is compromised further. The more ‘cuts’ or ‘re-openings’ the weaker the skin gets as in unable to heal itself and the more it is susceptible to ongoing cuts/reopenings and then you spiral into it not ever healing.
So if your immune system is down already either from endo or some other illness/stress/allergy etc the harder it’s going to be to heal itself and prevent itself from getting worse. The more shit you shove in a cut, the more you pick at it, the more you knock it and open it back up the longer it takes to heal.. as endo warriors were trying to minimise all of that as best we can!
I hope that makes sense?
What a great response 👏
Go to Heal Endometriosis book by Katie Edmonds to get a decent understanding of the immune system and endo , she also has a @heal.endo feed on instagram that's worth delving into. It's a field that's being explored and there is a definite relationship between the two. You can sign up to Endo News website to get research links to current areas of exploration if you are so minded. Part of what comes up are the questions around immune response to endo etc.
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