Endometriosis: Shedding Light on a Misunderstood Disease
By Kelsey Weller
Approximately one out of every 10 women has endometriosis, an inflammatory disease that causes chronic pain, limits life’s activities, and may lead to infertility. Despite the disease’s prevalence, the average woman may suffer for a decade or more before receiving an accurate diagnosis. Once she does, she’s often given little more than a prescription for pain killers and a referral for the wrong kind of surgery.
In their new book, Beating Endo: How to Reclaim Your Life from Endometriosis by Iris Karin Orbuch, MD, and Amy Stein DPT, who are two of the world’s leading experts in endometriosis, the authors clearly explain the symptoms and all of the ways endometriosis can impact your health. With their expertise, they delve into the complex landscape of this often misunderstood condition, offering insight to understanding and managing endometriosis.
Beating Endo arms women with what has long been missing — even within the medical community, cutting-edge knowledge of how the disease works and what the endo sufferer can do to take charge of her fight against it.
Dr. Orbuch, a pelvic pain specialist, and Stein, a physical therapist, bring their years of experience to the forefront shedding light on the latest research surrounding endometriosis. From demystifying diagnosis to exploring treatment options, including medications, surgeries, and alternative therapies, they help readers with the knowledge needed to navigate their journey. Each chapter has a different focus on how endometriosis can impact certain organs including mental health.
One of the book’s standout features is its blend of medical insights and practical advice, providing you with a holistic approach to tackling endometriosis. As a sufferer from endometriosis, I found plenty of new and helpful information in the book, particularly diet tips that I was never told — such as avoiding chocolate and other foods that I thought were part of a healthy diet. They also go into great detail about chronic pain and the impact on your mental state and give tools on how to help manage it. The back of the book also includes great resources on all topics with websites and other book recommendations which was a great additional section. The resources include the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org), the Endometriosis Association (www.endometriosisassn.org), the Endometriosis Research Center (www.endocenter.org), and many others.
Both authors emphasize the importance of self-advocacy, encouraging you to become active participants in your treatment plans, and help by informing you of options with surgery (from excision to ablation). Through practical tips for managing symptoms, they help individuals by giving them the tools to understand their bodies and learn to live with the challenges posed by the disease. Their blend of expertise, empathy, and guidance makes this book a great resource for anyone affected by endometriosis.
Dr. Orbuch and Stein have long partnered with each other and with other healthcare practitioners to address the disease’s host of co-existing condition, which can include:
- Pelvic floor muscle dysfunction
- Gastrointestinal ailments
- Painful bladder syndrome
- Central nervous system sensitization
Now, Beating Endo presents a whole mind/body approach and formalizes the multimodal program they developed, offering readers an anti-inflammatory lifestyle protocol that incorporates physical therapy, nutrition, mindfulness, and environment to systematically addressing each of the disease’s co-conditions on an ongoing basis up to and following excision surgery. This is the program that has achieved successful outcomes for their patients; it is the program that works to restore health, vitality, and quality of life to women with endo.
No more “misdiagnosis roulette” and no more limits on women’s lives: Beating Endo puts the tools of renewed health in the hands of those whose health is at risk.
