Covid19 and endometriosis: the effects of the pandemic on the disease

and the organization of the health system focused on "coping with" emergencies have had a ripple effect on the care and treatment of patients with other conditions. Waiting lists that are getting longer, financial difficulties, limited access to care. These are some of the main reasons that emerged from the questionnaire prepared by APE - Associazione Progetto Endometriosis, which investigated the effects and the relationship between Covid19 and endometriosis, a chronic and complex disease that affects about 3 million women in Italy. An "emergency in an emergency" for thousands of women who have had to face the difficulty of taking care of themselves, in a context in which early diagnosis is essential.

(especially in the age of 30 to 40 years) which originates from the abnormal presence of the tissue that lines the inner wall of the uterus, called the endometrium, in other organs (for example ovaries, tubes, peritoneum, vagina and sometimes also intestine and bladder ), which causes severe pain, so much so as to limit daily life and cause infertility.

Experts in the field of diseases of the female genital system distinguish endometriosis into internal and external:

• Internal endometriosis (or adenomyosis), when the ectopic endometrium is located in the thickness of the myometrium
• External endometriosis when the ectopic endometrium is located
  • At the level of the pelvis (eg on the ovaries, rectum, vagina, vulva, fallopian tubes, bladder, ureters, sigmoid portion of the colon, descending colon and / or ligaments that hold the uterus in place) or
  • Outside the pelvis (e.g. on the abdomen, ileocecal appendage, small intestine, kidneys, and / or lungs).

Common symptoms of endometriosis:

• Recurrent pelvic pain (usually reappears shortly before and during menstruation)
• Dysmenorrhea (extremely painful periods)
• Dyspareunia (pain in the genital and pelvic area during sexual intercourse)
• Menorrhagia (extensive blood loss during menstruation)
• Metrorrhagia

had on women suffering from endometriosis were monitored and put in black and white by APE, an association that unites patients throughout Italy, through a "survey that involved over a thousand women in" August 2020. The sample of interviewees answered questions specifics on access to treatment, health care and expenses to be incurred. «These data - explains Sara Beltrami, co-referent for institutional relations and the protection of women at APE - suggest how the months of lockdown have been faced by patients with anguish. They experienced the pain of the disease without "adequate assistance, in an extraordinary and isolating situation. As emerges from the answers, in fact, the idea of ​​having to take urgent care and live with the specter of not being able to do so, accompanied these women to months>.

, the nutritionist.

To combat the pain, a hot water or ice bottle, depending on the case, could also be useful.