Dr Natalie Crawford

It doesn't mean it's not bad.

And so norms shifting, meaning we're getting sicker as a population, and we're willing to accept lower levels, although they're not optimal for health.

Well, endo can't get an appendix.

It's surgery.

But she had major surgery, and I've seen this course before, and it's devastating because she's going years and years and years now.

You can't just obliterate the anatomy because the infiltration, these implants will start growing into other organs because they'll find new blood supply.

They'll steal blood supply from the bowel because all of our pelvic organs are just sitting there on top of each other, the bladder, the bowel.

It's one of those no meat, no treat, you know, in medicine where you can't make the diagnosis until you have a tissue sample.

So meat means you go and take a biopsy.

So you can suspect it based on imaging.

We're not great at this.

And Dr. Crawford, why don't we have a cure?

If it distorts the anatomy, we need a healthy, floppy fallopian tube generally that can swing around and pick up this egg that's floating around our abdominal cavity.

And then you need a place for the egg and sperm to meet, which is generally a healthy, non-inflamed fallopian tube.

So they're also at increased risk for infertility, but ectopic pregnancies, that's where I see them, you know, is when I was a hospitalist, is in the OR, you know, emergently from a ruptured fallopian tube from this.

You know, and I go in and I'm making, not only is she's lost a wanted pregnancy, and I'm making the diagnosis of endometriosis at the same time, and they are just devastated.

What I find in the patients, you know, when we made the diagnosis was they're forced into making these kind of life-changing decisions around their fertility and ability to conceive before their peers are even thinking about it.

It's pretty devastating.

How does that work?

Yeah, it feels cold.