Endometriosis
Endometriosis is one of the most misunderstood and frequently dismissed conditions affecting women today.
For many, it takes years of pain, being told:
“that’s just how periods are,”
“some women are just unlucky,”
“try the pill and see,”
…before anyone considers a deeper cause.
If you’ve ever felt unheard, minimised, or made to question your own experience — you are not imagining it. Endometriosis is often minimised, and many women are told their symptoms are ‘normal.’ They’re not — and your experience deserves to be taken seriously.
This condition occurs when tissue similar to the endometrial lining — which should shed during your monthly period — grows elsewhere in the pelvis where it cannot exit the body.
This tissue responds to your monthly hormonal rhythm, often causing intense pain, heavy bleeding, digestive issues, fatigue, and for many women, challenges getting pregnant.
Diagnosis requires a laparoscopy.
The severity grading (1–4) reflects the amount of disease, not how much pain you are in — which is why someone with minimal disease can be incapacitated, while someone with advanced disease may not realise anything is wrong until fertility becomes affected.
Endometriosis affects 8–10% of women of reproductive age, and is linked to 20–50% of female sub-fertility.
You are not alone — and your pain has always been real.
Why it happens
The exact cause isn’t fully understood, but several factors are involved:
Retrograde flow
Period blood that should leave the body can move backwards into the pelvis, where the tissue implants and responds to hormones each month.
Inflammation & immune activation
This tissue triggers inflammation, which contributes to pain and can disrupt reproductive function.
Genetics
Some women are more predisposed.
Environmental factors
Exposure to dioxins, pesticides and PCBs is associated with higher rates of endometriosis.
I have studied the nutritional aspects of endometriosis with educators such as Dian Shepperson Mills, whose work focuses on inflammation, immune balance and reproductive health. While genetics can’t be changed, environment and nutrition absolutely can — and they have a measurable impact on symptoms and fertility.
Common symptoms
Endometriosis symptoms can vary widely, but the most commonly reported include:
• Severe period pain
• Ovulation pain
• Pain during bowel movements
• Pain during intercourse
• Very heavy periods
• Large clots
• Brown bleeding at the end of a period
• Mid-cycle spotting
• Nausea or vomiting
• Fainting or near-fainting
• Irritable bowel symptoms / bloating
• Fatigue
Many women internalise these symptoms for years, assuming they are “normal.”
They are not.
They are signs that your body is asking for support.
How endometriosis affects fertility
Some women only discover they have endometriosis when they begin trying to conceive.
The condition can affect fertility in several ways:
• Blocked fallopian tubes
• Endometriomas (“chocolate cysts”)
• Pain during intercourse, reducing opportunities to conceive
• Pelvic inflammation, affecting egg quality, ovulation and implantation
• Digestive issues, reducing nutrient absorption
• Altered immune function
• Hormonal imbalance affecting the menstrual and fertility cycle
Endometriosis is linked to 20–50% of all female sub-fertility, and women with endometriosis may also experience conditions such as thyroid issues, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, allergies, asthma, eczema, lupus, RA or MS — signalling deeper immune involvement. Women with endometriosis often also experience conditions like thyroid issues or metabolic or hormonal patterns seen in PCOS, which further influence inflammation.
None of this means your fertility journey is over.
It just means your body needs a different kind of support.
Medical treatment options
Diagnosis & surgery
A laparoscopy is the only definitive diagnostic tool.
If lesions are found, they are often removed during the same procedure.
Surgery can improve fertility outcomes immediately, but inflammation, hormone imbalance and nutritional depletion often remain afterwards and benefit from targeted support.
Lesions may regrow within 6–12 months without lifestyle change.
Pharmaceutical options
Your doctor may suggest:
• Oral contraceptive pill
• Mirena coil
• Norethisterone
• Decapeptyl
• NSAIDs / paracetamol
• Buscopan
• Amitriptyline
• Low-dose naltrexone
Some medications that suppress ovulation cannot be used while trying to conceive, so an individualised plan matters.
Supporting endometriosis naturally (and fertility-friendly)
Because endometriosis is oestrogen-driven and inflammatory, nutrition and lifestyle changes can make a meaningful difference.
Supportive approaches include:
• Anti-inflammatory nutrition
• Reducing exposure to xeno-oestrogens (plastics, fragrances, household chemicals)
• Lowering overall toxin load
• Switching to low-toxin sanitary products
• Reducing saturated fats that drive inflammation
• Increasing foods that support healthy oestrogen metabolism
• Supporting gut health and immune balance
These approaches do not replace medical care — they complement it.
And they are especially important when trying to conceive.
Endometriosis success story
When she first contacted me, she was 34 and six months into trying to conceive.
She had already been through two laparoscopies, years of pelvic pain, irregular bowel habits managed with Buscopan, and a long history of depression linked to earlier trauma.
Every specialist she met treated each issue separately — bowel, pain, hormones, mood — but never her whole story.
She kept hearing:
“Your surgery went well.”
“Your scans are fine.”
“Just keep trying.”
But she didn’t feel fine. She felt disconnected from her body, frightened of the pain returning, and unsure how to trust the process of conception when her cycles still felt unpredictable.
The turning point wasn’t a test result — it was what she said after our first session:
“No one has ever explained my symptoms back to me in a way that made sense.”
We worked gently and steadily.
For the first time, she understood how endometriosis, inflammation, stress physiology, digestion, trauma history and oestrogen metabolism were all interacting.
And she understood what we could do about it — in a way that felt safe and doable.
Within weeks:
• her bowel habits stabilised
• her pain reduced
• her energy returned
• her cycles became more regular
• her nervous system softened — she no longer felt like she was “bracing” each month
This created the exact internal conditions her body needed to conceive.
She became pregnant naturally not long afterwards — something she once told me she feared might never happen for her.
What mattered most wasn’t willpower, another restrictive diet, or another appointment.
It was being met as a whole person — hormones, trauma history, digestion, inflammation, and fertility physiology — all held together in one coherent plan.
Her words say it best:
“For years I tried to fix each piece of the puzzle on its own. You showed me how everything fits together — and that changed everything.”
This is the kind of transformation that becomes possible when your body is supported completely, not in fragments.
If you’re navigating endometriosis and trying to conceive
Endometriosis can make you feel like you’re fighting your body — or fighting to be believed.
But your body is not broken.
It is communicating.
You deserve support that looks at the full picture — hormones, inflammation, nutrition, environmental load, immune balance — and how these interact with your fertility.
Explore personalised fertility support
Gentle, evidence-informed guidance to help your body move toward balance, hope, and conception.