Passing Endometriosis Genetically and its way of changing through age

Honey as devastating as this is, would knowing that you could pass this on to potential daughters have stopped you from trying? As awful as it is to see your baby suffering, all you can do now is to help her through this the best possible way.

Here is a great article I came across exploring how diet change can affect endometriosis for the better:

Dian Shepperson Mills, MA, is a British nutritionist who pioneered a dietary program for endometriosis and has spoken around the world on the subject of endometriosis and diet. She is director of the Endometriosis and Fertility Clinic in London and Sussex, England; chair of the Nutrition Special Interest Group at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine; and author of Endometriosis: A Key to Healing and Fertility through Nutrition.

The theory behind her endometriosis diet: “The diet aims to reduce internal inflammation within the body, improve pain responses, and support estrogen excretion from the body," Shepperson Mills explains. She says that 20,000 women have tried the diet and many reported improvement in pain levels and fertility.

How Diet May Affect Endometriosis

“Women with endometriosis should avoid fatty foods, such as red meat and [high-fat] dairy foods that may be high in PCBs and dioxins, to reduce their exposure to these estrogenic pesticides,” she suggests. Use organic food whenever feasible, or peel fruits and vegetables, she recommends. Some research suggests a link between dioxins in the environment and increased levels of estrogen.

Shepperson Mills also cites studies that found an association between oxidative stress — which includes the formation of cell-damaging substances called free radicals — and endometriosis. Additional research found that a lack of antioxidants may contribute to endometriosis, while absorbing key antioxidant nutrients like selenium and vitamins A, C, and E may help keep it under control.

What to Eat for Endometriosis

The core of Shepperson Mills’ diet for endometriosis includes these hallmarks of healthy nutrition:
Freshness. Buy the freshest food you can find and eat it while it’s fresh. Avoid highly processed foods full of additives. Cook with fresh foods, but also eat some raw vegetables and fruit every day. To minimize exposure to pesticides, eat organically grown produce whenever possible.
Variety. Eat a wide variety of foods every day. “Make it fun to try new dishes on weekends and expand your horizons,” says Shepperson Mills.

Your daily diet should provide 75 grams of good quality protein from sources like meat and game, fish, eggs, and low-fat dairy products. Also include nuts, seeds, and legumes (such as beans), two portions of red or orange vegetables, two green leafy vegetables, and two fruits, including berries, which are high in antioxidants.

Specific Nutrients at Work

Certain foods rich in key nutrients contribute direct effects to a diet for endometriosis:
Vegetables with B vitamins. “A healthy liver with a plentiful supply of B vitamins can degrade estradiol to estriol,” Shepperson Mills says. “Estriol is the form in which estrogen can be bound to fiber and excreted. The diet needs to have sufficient fiber and B vitamins from green vegetables to help the body deal with the constant breakdown of circulating estrogens. Green, leafy vegetables can also help the nervous and immune systems, and magnesium relaxes smooth muscles found in the intestines and uterus.”. The best vegetables: those in the cruciferous family, such as cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, turnips, radishes, horseradish, and watercress.
Iron-rich foods. “With endometriosis you may experience heavy bleeding, so replacing lost iron is important,” she says. Two types of iron are available in the foods we eat, heme iron from protein sources and non-heme iron from plant sources. Non-heme iron is available in green, leafy vegetables, beetroot, dried apricots, and plain chocolate. Heme iron comes from red meat, eggs, and fish.
Omega fatty acids. Include 1 tablespoon of cold-pressed vegetable oil in your meals daily. Avoid trans fats, and keep saturated fats low. Sources of omega fatty acids include oily fish such as wild Alaskan salmon and Pacific halibut, and tree nuts, seeds, and extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil.
Fiber. Shepperson Mills suggests getting 30 grams of fiber from fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains including rye, oats, rice, corn, millet, and buckwheat to keep your intestinal tract healthy and promote the excretion of excess estrogens.
Water. Drink four to six 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Avoid caffeine, refined sugars, sweeteners, soda (including diet), and alcohol when struggling with endometriosis or trying to get pregnant.

The Role of Supplements in an Endometriosis Diet

“Obtaining nutrients from food sources is obviously best,” says Shepperson Mills. “The judicious use of nutritional supplements may also improve reproductive health. Use only good quality supplements, free from yeast, gluten, wheat, dairy, and sugars, and stick to the dose on the carton or bottle.”

What About Gluten?

Shepperson Mills is investigating the role gluten might play in endometriosis. “Eating a wheat-free diet seems to help many women with endometriosis symptoms. Whether this is a result of gluten or another component of wheat is unclear,” she believes. “It may be worth excluding wheat for one month to see if it makes a difference to your abdominal pains at periods and ovulation. You could also try to exclude dairy foods if you have excess mucus problems.”

Another food you may want to skip is citrus fruit, like grapefruit and oranges — they can irritate your stomach and upset the way in which estrogen is excreted by the body. When excluding foods from your diet, make sure to eat alternatives so you avoid any nutrient deficiencies.

“If a food is upsetting digestion and causing an immune system response, then that food should be avoided,” says Shepperson Mills.

Some doctors aren’t sure that the diet is beneficial in terms of endometriosis relief per se. “Endometriosis is a funny entity in the sense of immunology," says John C. Petrozza, MD, board-certified ob-gyn and chief of reproductive medicine and IVF at Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center in Boston. Patients with endometriosis tend to have " problems with asthma, allergies — it’s not uncommon to have irritable bowel syndrome, also lactose intolerance, gluten intolerance," he says. "So is the diet really helping the endometriosis or the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome?”

The bottom line: If you have endometriosis, talk to your doctor or registered dietitian to see if this diet might be worth trying.
(by Julie Davis, Everdayhealth.com)

Don't see this as some sort of curse you have put on your daughter. She needs your strength now, not your pity.

-CK

Its not your fault. There are alot of factors with endo. In fact they traced it back to my great grandmother but no one in my family has had it again until me including my sister. i really believe that there are environmental factors that contribute to it. and that's not something we can change. don't blame yourself, just keep talking and fighting and one day we will find a cure- that's the only thing that keeps me going. because on days like today, where i really feel like i cant do it anymore, these support groups are what get me through.

Its not your fault. There are alot of factors with endo. In fact they traced it back to my great grandmother but no one in my family has had it again until me including my sister. i really believe that there are environmental factors that contribute to it. and that's not something we can change. don't blame yourself, just keep talking and fighting and one day we will find a cure- that's the only thing that keeps me going. because on days like today, where i really feel like i cant do it anymore, these support groups are what get me through.

Hi Krista,
I inherited endo from my family...my 2 aunts, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and probably in past generations all had/have endometriosis. I don't blame them in any way, I inherited endo like I inherited my height and blue eyes. You don't get to pick and choose your genes. Having family members with the disease has provided some support, just support your girl!
xo

Thank you everyone, everything you said made sense to me and my daughter doesn't blame me so I shouldn't waste any time with that emotion. I have told her and she has seen me go through various diets that did help, but where hard to maintain with a family of four. I did read a fabulous book called "Diet for a Poisoned Planet" It talks about all of the chemicals that are on food and which ones you need to buy organic and which ones you don't have to. I really liked it because staying on a completely organic diet is hard and very expensive. This book tells you all of the items that have the most poisons on them and which ones do not. I think I need to read it again. CK, thank you so much for your long response and helpful recommendations on avoiding gluten. I has heard that before. Also for some reason red wine can be a bad culprit as well and I do have a friend that reported pain after eating bread. When you have this condition you do have a tendency to track what you eat and drink. I know for a fact that Red dye 40 used in a lot of beverages will clean me out better than an enema, but much more painful. My daughter seems to be doing better after the surgery and the new birth control pill that she will take every 21 days instead of 28. meaning no period. I just hope this works and we don't have to do anything more evasive. I met a woman one time on a business to business meeting who had a complete hysterectomy after finding out she had eno. I was shocked that she didn't question the doctor or try something else before doing something so drastic and she wanted kids. I was a stage four and still managed to have two kids, maybe I was just lucky, but I feel that all of my research helped quite a bit. I know some doctors don't appreciate an educated patient, but I know what is going on with my body and nobody is going to tell me any different. Anhooo! I'm off on a tan gem. Thanks for all of your replies, they are much appreciated. Take care and be pain free!!!!!