Endometriosis and Adenomyosis are common amongst women, specifically after having their babies.
But this is only just the tip of the iceberg and for years before you reach this point, you can implement strategies to prevent these conditions from developing.
However, in this episode, I share 5 strategies for managing these conditions naturally and if you implement these, you are likely to also prevent these conditions from developing.
See below transcript for all notes and links.
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Transcript:
Well, hello and welcome back to Episode 12 of Beauty in Balance!
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a week since our last chat.
Life is flying at an astronomical speed in my world.
I have to say, homeschooling has been so much fun.
But let’s be honest, I need about 10 more hours in a day to fit everything in!
Nonetheless, sooo much fun.
So you know that I absolutely love hearing from you guys!
And this week, a lady got in contact with me asking about adenomyosis. At that point, I had no existing content that I’ve created so I’ve decided to do this week’s poddy on this topic.
Maybe you’ve never heard of adenomyosis, but you may have heard about endometriosis.
These 2 conditions are quite similar and so I thought it might be a good idea to compare the 2 a little and talk about the causes and how to manage it naturally.
Ultimately, this falls right into my area of expertise, as long term hormone imbalance is very much part of both of these 2 conditions.
It’s very likely that most of you know at least 1 person with either of these 2 conditions, more likely endo, but maybe even adenomyosis.
Let’s just talk about the core difference between to start off with.
Both of these conditions involve the tissue of the endometrium, which is the lining of the uterine or uterus wall.
Both conditions can cause very painful periods with heavy bleeding. It can often also lead to irregular periods and bleeding between periods. Both conditions include overgrowth of endometrial tissue but where this tissue grows is different for the 2 conditions.
With Adenomyosis, tissue grows into the muscle of the uterine wall.
In the case of endometriosis, the endometrial tissue grows outside the uterus and may involve the ovaries, fallopian tubes, pelvic side walls or bowel.
In both cases, if the tissue growth has been significant, surgery may be necessary and in some cases even a total hysterectomy, which is when the entire uterus is removed.
Unfortunately, it can take many years for a diagnosis to be made. This means that millions of women live their lives with the debilitating symptoms every day without a diagnosis or any solutions. Both these conditions can be extremely painful and affect mood, weight and quite often fertility.
Although research shows that the cause of adenomyosis is not well understood, the bulk of the research suggests that high levels of estrogen and low progesterone are likely causes.
In other words, hormones that are out of balance.
In the case of endometriosis, we know that hormone imbalance is a major contributor, with diet and lifestyle as risk factors.
We know with endometriosis however, young girls can develop these as opposed to adenomyosis, where it typically occurs in women between 35 and 50 who have had at least one pregnancy. Women with adenomyosis typically also have a history of endo and uterine fibroids.
So we can assume that the risk factors and causes of both these conditions are very similar.
I like to see it as the language of our bodies being different.
One woman can suffer from estrogen dominance and present with adenomyosis, while another woman, also with estrogen dominance, will present with endometriosis.
Symptoms for both conditions can further include excessive bleeding during and between periods, painful periods where pain medication is required, pelvic pain, and painful intercourse.
If any of these symptoms resonate with you today, and you have not had this investigated by your healthcare practitioner, I highly recommend that you make an appointment and get it checked out. Diagnosis of both conditions may include a pelvic exam, an ultrasound, an MRI or laparoscopy, where a small camera is inserted into the abdomen so a biopsy can be taken.
It’s important that you realise, I’m by no means trying to give medical advice and as I said, I encourage you to see your GP if you are concerned. But I WOULD like to talk about prevention of and managing these conditions in a natural way.
I realise that many women may be struggling with these conditions and the information available on google can be overwhelming and often inaccurate.
So I want to do my best today to provide information that you can implement. Strategies that can really make a difference for you.
And even you don’t experience any of the symptoms of these conditions, please know that implementing these strategies can have a very strong preventative effect. So keep listening.
The main thing that we want to be addressing in both these conditions is to restore balance at hormonal level.
Most healthcare practitioners would do this by starting you on hormonal contraception. But what you need to understand here my friend, is that this is NOT a solution. It’s a bandaid to treat the symptoms of the underlying problem. In fact, using hormonal contraception will further aggravate the problem.
We know that these conditions are caused by very low levels of progesterone. Hormonal contraceptives will shut down your normal hormonal pathways and prevent you from ovulating. And ovulation is our main source of progesterone. You can listen to Episode 6, which I’ll link in the show notes, to understand more about how this works. But please know that ovulation is crucial for hormone balance.
So let’s look at 5 ways you can support your body through natural practices:
Number one: Support ovulation and the production of progesterone. Again, please refer to episode 6, where I share 6 practical ways of increasing your progesterone production. Start tracking your menstrual cycle and take note of how long your cycle is, is the length of your cycle consistent every month, do you have cervical mucus every month, if not, this could be an indication that you are actually not ovulating, are you experiencing spotting leading up to your period. All of this can provide very helpful information in terms of ovulation and progesterone levels.
Number 2: Manage your weight
This one may feel like a mountain, as often one of the symptoms of these conditions is weight gain or the inability to lose weight.
And there’s one thing that I want you to hear and understand friend. Being uncomfortable in your body is not something you should feel ashamed of. Very very often, obesity is a symptom of some underlying cause.
Yes, if you have not been looking after yourself in that you eat more rubbish than real food and never move your body and practice selfcare, there are heaps of low hanging fruit right there.
But if you, like many other women, have tried everything but just can’t seem to lose weight. In fact, you gain weight despite eating the bare minimum and exercising regularly, it might be time to do some deep digging to find the cause. My recommendation would be to make sure that you eat enough, every 3 hours at least, eat heaps of plant based foods at every single meal and reduce the intake of animal foods, specifically dairy. If you need more guidance on this, please reach out to me.
But the bottom line here is that fat cells produce estrogen. So the more fat cells we have, the more estrogen will be produced and circulating in our bodies, which will further lead to an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone.
So it’s absolutely time to pay attention to your weight and find a plan that will work for you.
Please don’t revert to under-eating and overexercising. This will only make the problem worse.
Start with restorative exercise. I wanna challenge you to commit to at least 30 minutes of fast paced walking, 5-6 days a week for at least the next 3 months. If you are suffering from endometriosis or adenomyosis, I would not recommend high intensity exercise until your body has had time to heal.
Moving on to Number 3, it’s crucial to support your liver for estrogen detoxification. The liver performs about 500 different functions each day. It will prioritise detoxification of foreign toxins, and since estrogen is known to the body, it will not be prioritised. This means that, once estrogen has been used in your body, it will go to the liver to be broken down so it can be eliminated through the gut. But since it is know to the body, it will not be prioritised and will be recirculated into the bloodstream so the liver can focus on other, more toxic substances.
So there are 2 ways to support your liver to optimise detoxification of used hormones. This is to reduce the amount of toxins you expose yourself to and to support the detoxification processes of the liver.
So in short, avoid liver loaders such as coffee, alcohol and any products around your house that will contain fragrances. This includes cleaning products, beauty products, any aerosols, and bug sprays. Try to select foods that have not been sprayed, such as organic fruits and vegetables and choose organic and free range animal products as far as possible.
And then my golden tip for supporting the liver detoxification processes, is to have cruciferous vegetables at least once every single day. These include kale, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts and bok choy.
Number 4: And this brings me to the next point, Gut health. After the liver has detoxified estrogen, it is transported to the gut for elimination through the faeces. Detoxified estrogen needs to bind to fibre to be eliminated from the body. If you are not consuming enough fibre through your diet, estrogen will again be reabsorbed in the gut to be recirculating into the bloodstream. So by having a large amount of plant foods every day will ensure you consume enough fibre for estrogen to be eliminated efficiently. Smoothies for breakfast is always a great idea as it is simple and usually contains a large volume of plant-based foods. You can also add psyllium husk and flax seeds, that will further support gut health and ultimately hormone health.
Number 5: And last but not least, essential oils and supplements that can support hormone imbalance.
I want to recommend 5 supplements today that will support hormone balance and could support your body to start healing from endo or adenomyosis.
The first one being DIM. Simply put, it stimulates the pathway that leads to the production of good estrogen and supports a healthy hormone balance. This automatically lowers the production of harmful estrogens.
My recommendation here would be a product called Juvatone, which is a Young Living product.
The second supplement that I recommend you take every single day of each and every year, is a good quality, broad spectrum probiotic. When choosing a probiotic, there are 2 things to look out for.
Firstly: Make sure it has at least 1 billion colony forming units or CFU
And second, make sure the probiotic is broad spectrum, in other words that it contains at least 2 of the following 3 strains: lactobacillus, bifidobacterium and Saccharomyces Boulardii. If it has all 3 of these, great.
And as I said, you should be taking a probiotic every single day. And this also includes your entire family.
The third supplement that I recommend is a good quality omega 3 supplement. These essential fatty acids are crucial for the production of hormones. This is a side note here, make sure your supplement does not include omega 6, only omega 3. My recommendation here would be Omegagize, which is also a Young Living Product and it also contains CoQ10, which has numerous health benefits.
The fourth supplement would be a calcium and magnesium supplement.
Please note friends, although it is recommended that you supplement magnesium, it is never a good idea to supplement magnesium without calcium.
These 2 minerals compete for the same receptors on the cells and it is therefore to supplement them in a ratio of 2 parts calcium to 1 part magnesium.
It’s recommended that you take one supplement that has these minerals in the correct ratios and here, I would recommend Young Living's Super Cal Supplement.
And lastly, but certainly NOT the least, is Progessence Phyto Plus, which is a serum that contains essential oils and wild yam. Not only have I seen incredible results with this cerum, but I’ve seen many women experience major relief from symptoms of hormonal imbalance. This is also a Young Living product and I would love for you to get in touch to discuss this product if you consider using it. The benefits are just too numerous to mention here, but I would love for you to give it a go. You can find a link to this product in the show notes.
Ok my dear friends, I hope this episode provided you with some very practical tips on how to support yourself through not only Endo or Adenomyosis, but through hormone balance, which is more common than you may think.
If you’ve been listening to this episode and one or 2 specific ladies come to mind, please copy the link and send it to them. I would be so grateful if you could help me to spread awareness.
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Ok friend, Until next time, take care.