VIDEO: Endometriosis commonly improves during menopause

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The food for endometriosis, which I keep saying, is estrogen. And when somebody goes through menopause, their estrogen levels drop, and typically endometriosis gets better. I’m starting to believe that, you know, we’ve been doing a lot of research into endometriosis, and I’m trying to believe that the disease tissue makes its own food supply too. Because I’ve had a few patients who are clearly postmenopausal, but still have endometriosis, which I didn’t believe until I repeat operated on them. And I saw the endometriosis, got pathologic confirmation. And since their overall estrogen levels were low, it would suggest that the disease tissue may be making estrogen also. And so, by removing it, it helps them.

So, I guess the primary link is that menopause provides hope for a cure in a patient as they go through life for this disease. Because this is a disease of reproductive-age women. But there are some instances where even menopause does not provide the relief that it could. Does endometriosis itself cause menopause? No. But if endometriosis impacts the ovary, you can get a noncancerous tumor on the ovary, which we call a “endometrioma.” And repeat surgery on the ovaries can diminish the function of the ovary and make somebody more likely to be closer to menopause, because you’re surgically impacting the ovarian function. But the disease itself, I’m not aware of any data saying it does cause menopause.