Coping with Endometriosis: 7 Ways to Ease the Pain

Endometriosis causes crippling pain in women, with some spending up to a month of every year debilitated by it. “We’re talking about pain that’s beyond ‘I took two ibuprofen and went to work,’” says Dr. Kristin Riley, chief of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery at Penn State Health Medical Center. “We’re talking about pain that keeps people from living their lives.” The condition involves tissue normally found in the uterus instead growing in the ovaries, bowels, bladder and elsewhere, Riley shares. It affects roughly 190 million women around the world, with Black women typically diagnosed two and a half years later than white women. The pain caused by endometriosis ranges from endurable to excruciating, Riley adds. Sometimes women can shrug it off, while at other times leaving the house or getting out of bed isn’t an option for days at a time. There’s no cure, but doctors have become adept at diminishing its agony, Riley notes. Women with endometriosis or chronic pelvic pain now have a wealth of options to choose from, including some geared to very specific kinds of pain. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Riley said in a Penn State news release. “It’s very individualized.” Pain during a period...