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Periods are, and always will be, an irritating fact of life. For some women though, they’re more than just an inconvenience?they’re downright debilitating. If you fall into the latter category and your period arrives along with excruciatingly painful cramps that leave you struggling to get out of bed, the culprit could be endometriosis. It’s actually not as unlikely as you might think: Right now there are 176 million women suffering from the condition?one in 10 in the U.S. And thanks to celebrities like Padma Lakshmi and Lena Dunham becoming particularly vocal about their struggle with the disease recently, the term “endometriosis” is getting a lot more attention from mainstream media. Dr Iris Orbuch, director of the Advanced Gynecologic Laparoscopy Center in New York City, specializes in advanced laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis and is one of the country’s top experts in the field. She appears in new educational documentary “Endo What"” and told us that endometriosis is usually accompanied by symptoms including “Painful periods, painful sex, infertility, constipation, painful bowel movements, right and/or left sided pain, and back pain.”
As well as suffering with a lineup of painful symptoms, Dr Orbuch said it usually takes a woman 10 or 12 years to get an accurate diagnosis. “The reason is that there are masquerading symptoms which involve multiple organ...