2023-06-17 14:10:49
Medicine
Endometriosis may be linked to gut bacteria
Researchers have discovered the presence of this infection in many women suffering from the disease. Antibiotic treatment may be considered.
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Endometriosis is a painful disease that affects 10% of women of childbearing age.
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Endometriosis is a painful and debilitating disease which, in severe cases, can lead to infertility. It only affects women. It comes from the word “endometrium” which defines the wall that is inside the uterus. And in women with endometriosis, this uterine lining grows outside the uterus. It affects regarding 10% of women and girls of reproductive age worldwide, according to the WHO.
The causes of this disease are poorly understood. “Medicine puts a band-aid on it,” Dr. Allison K. Rodgers, an endocrinologist at Fertility Centers of Illinois, told The Washington Post. I can give you medicine to stop your period, birth control pills, painkillers, stop your period by surgery. But we haven’t understood why, and once we begin to understand the why, we will be able to design targeted approaches for treatment.”
In two-thirds of women with
Japanese scientists may have found a lead. They discovered a link between this ailment and a bacteria commonly found in the mouth and gut by studying vaginal swab samples taken from 155 women, 79 of whom had endometriosis and 76 did not. Almost two-thirds of women with endometriosis tested positive for Fusobacterium in their uterine lining. It’s a bacteria that can contribute to gum disease and other mouth and bowel diseases, but only one in 10 women who didn’t have the disease carried the bacteria, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal “Science Translational Medicine».
“Previously, no one thought endometriosis came from a bacterial infection, so this is a very new idea,” said co-author Yutaka Kondo, a cancer biologist at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, as quoted by LiveScience.
Lesions that develop in mice
The researchers wanted to test their discovery on mice. They infected them with the bacteria and examined their uterine lining. The mice developed lesions associated with endometriosis. Once the scientists gave the mice antibiotics, they saw an improvement in lesion formation, with the lesions decreasing in both size and number.
“Eradication of this bacterium by antibiotic treatment might be an approach to treat endometriosis in women who are positive for the infection. Fusobacteria and these women might be easily identified by a vaginal swab or a uterine swab,” Kondo said. But more research needs to be done before treatments can be derived from this new study.
For now, the only treatments for endometriosis are hormonal medications, such as birth control pills, or surgery to remove reproductive organs.
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