Can naturopathy cure endometriosis?

No, and be careful of anyone who suggests otherwise. Endometriosis is a chronic condition. Diagnosis is medical, and surgical or medical management is often necessary. Naturopathic care works alongside that, on symptom burden and the factors around it — it isn't a substitute for it.

How is endometriosis diagnosed?

Laparoscopy is how it's confirmed. That's a medical procedure and a naturopath can't perform or replace it. If your pain pattern suggests endometriosis, your naturopath will encourage you to pursue diagnosis with your GP or gynaecologist.

I have no symptoms but it was found incidentally. Do I need treatment?

Not necessarily. Where endometriosis is found without symptoms, the general clinical position is not to treat it. That's a conversation for the specialist who found it.

Does the pill treat it?

Hormonal contraception is often used to suppress symptoms and it does help many people. It's a management strategy rather than a cure, and it's worth discussing the long-term plan with your doctor — particularly if you're thinking about pregnancy in the future.

Endometriosis Naturopath Melbourne

Endometriosis is a gynaecological condition affecting somewhere between 4 and 15% of women during their reproductive years.

It’s the growth of endometrial-like cells — similar to those lining the inside of the uterus — in places outside the uterus. Those cells respond to the menstrual cycle much as the lining does, which is what produces the pain. It’s one of the leading causes of pelvic pain and is implicated in up to half of infertility cases. The reason the cells grow where they do isn’t known.

Most reported cases are in women aged 25 to 35, though that may partly reflect when it gets found — often during a fertility investigation. Many women don’t know they have it. It’s been identified in girls as young as 11 and is rare after menopause. Where it’s found and there are no symptoms, the usual clinical position is not to treat it.

Symptoms

Pain, typically worse around the period, and infertility. The pain is the most common cause of secondary dysmenorrhoea — period pain, cramps, abdominal, back or leg pain, and headaches associated with the cycle.

Pain that stops you doing normal things is not something to accept as ordinary period pain. It’s worth investigating.

Diagnosis and medical management

Endometriosis is confirmed by laparoscopy. Medication or surgery is often required. Hormonal contraception is frequently used to suppress symptoms; it helps many people, and it’s worth discussing the longer-term plan with your doctor, particularly if you’re considering pregnancy.

None of that is something a naturopath can do or replace, and your naturopath will tell you so.

Where naturopathic care fits

Alongside medical management, not instead of it.

Your naturopath will take a full history of your cycle, pain pattern, digestion, stress and diet, and where it’s clinically appropriate may use herbal medicine, nutritional medicine and dietary and lifestyle strategies to support you. The aim is a reduction in the day-to-day burden of the condition and attention to the things around it — sleep, nutritional status, bowel symptoms, and the mental load of a chronic pain condition.

Fertility and women’s health.

Endometriosis