Abhishek Mahajan (narrator / author)

End quote.

I'm not the first one to point out how strange this disease is.

But perhaps even comparing this to cancer understates the true horror of late-stage endometriosis.

In the absolute worst-case prognosis, lesions can form deep fibrotic adhesions that tether organs to each other.

The bladder fused to the uterus, the bowel glued to the pelvic wall, the ovaries fixed in unnatural positions.

One commentary paper states this.

Quote

It doesn't take more than a short inspection into the peritoneal space of a patient with widespread superficial or deep infiltrating endometriosis to understand that this is not the appearance of a usual benign disease.

It's not uncommon that a surgeon walks out of the operating theatre after a long and exhausting endometriosis case, saying, this is worse than metastatic cancer.

End quote.

But at least with late-stage cancers, there are some miracles that can be accomplished.

After all, the birth of cancer immunotherapy came from finding that, in rare cases, patients with late-stage tumours could see a complete and miraculous remission, as if entirely by magic, all through their immune system.

And if a patient's immune system could do this once, even rarely, then perhaps it could be trained, or unshackled, to do it more reliably.

So we got checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T therapy, and so on.

For patients who have endometriosis, is there anything remotely analogous?

Subheading.

There is no real cure.

Unfortunately, no.

Currently, there are two routes for endometriosis treatment.

Non-invasive chemical treatments and invasive surgical treatments.