Also, while I think about it.. Who knows if their mum smoked with them in the womb?

[MrsGizzard]

I know I'm grasping at straws, but I look at my brother (born 2years later) and he's as fit as a fiddle, and I've always been the one with the strange immune disorders, the allergies and now endo, and I'm wondering what the difference is/was.

[Chrissie66]

My mum smoked like a trooper when she was pregnant with me (this was back in the sixties) and gave up for my brother - BUT he suffers with kidney stones and other kidney related problems.

I'm sure they'll link endo to smoking in the womb eventually but equally, I have a friend with endo whose mother didn't smoke in pregnancy

I wonder if we'll all still be around when they eventually find out what causes it...

[Efarms37]

My mother also smoked like a trooper when she was pregnant!

[stevieflp]

Mine too. I had never considered a link before but you never know.

[rainey6373]

My Mum never smoked. She had endo too and her Mum (my Grandma) didn't smoke either.

[tinker241]

that strange... my natural mother smoked and i've got endo!! and also she didnt have endo but heavy period!!

[BelfastRach]

My Mum smoked, and I have a friend with endo who's mum smoked too

[star85]

My mum doesn't and didn't smoke and I have endo

[endobob]

my mum smoked when she had my elder sister and brother but gave up when she found out she was pregnant with me. Neither my mum nor my sister have endo, though they both have had heavy and painful periods

[Impatient]

My mother never smoked in her life- was as fit as a fiddle- i was her first of 5 , and i have all the deformities and medical problems- none of the subsequent kids have anything remotely like the catalogue of medical conditions that i have had,

Partly it is down to the fact mum was taken very ill while carryingme and nearly lost me at 10 weeks..which accounts for the deformities in my internal organ development. But neither of my parents smoked and they lived very healthy lives other than that hiccup. It doesn't account for all my medical issues- some just seem to run in the family anyway.

Others are bad luck.

As endometriosis as a disease predates anyone smoking - and is probably no more prevelant in the population than it has always been - i really doubt that anything our parents did was responsible. 20% of females with endo world wide in all cultures and races is not something that is born out of lifestyle choices. The population has exploded threfore more women do have endo because there are so many more women surviving childhood and early adulthood.

In the past women had babies younger and a lot more pregnancies too- both will have kept the endo at bay for much of their younger lives. They startd their periods at an older age and menopaused or died much younger too. Therefore not really giving endo a chance to take hold.

One could just as easily consider that our beds are so comfy that we are sleeping in the wrong position thus allowing menstrual backflow to run up the tubes instead of out of the vagina- but that doesn't account for those with endo in really strange remote locations.

Who knows what is behind how we got this- the issue is how on earth do we get it diagnosed much more quickly, and how do we stop it from developing and spreading once we do have it.

Or how do we stop menstrual activity without impacting the rest of the body so harshly?

Then we also have to address the other element which are the adhesions which do so much damage. How can they be discouraged from growing byond a certin point. We do need them - but not to keep growing till they become burden.

[Hidden]

Hi, I've suffered with health problems all my life and now seem to be intolerant to everything I eat. Doctors just fob me off all the time and never help. My mum smoked whilst carrying me because my brother had just been killed. So who knows you could be right.