Tangentrine.com

This page is an ongoing project on my attempt to manage a medical condition I suffer from. I have found a way to relieve my (painful and lifestyle-damaging) symptoms of endometriosis by eating mushrooms. You can find my scientific reasoning and more detailed explanation below, but all I do is make sure I eat between two and four ordinary white mushrooms every day. I'm making this information available free, in the hope it will help other people.

About my endometriosis

Since around the age of eighteen I have suffered from dysmenorrhoea (painful menstruation). This began as discomfort but quickly progressed to being so severe as to be intolerable without medication, to the point where I once almost passed out from standing in a queue at the post office. I went to the GP, who offered to give me hormones, which I didn't want, and so the GP prescribed me an anti-inflammatory drug, mefenamic acid. For a few years, the mefenamic acid worked and menstruation returned to being a condition I was able to live with.

As time went on, the condition got worse, and I began to suffer pain despite the mefenamic acid. I also began to have diarrhoea when I menstruated, and would get sharp, stabbing pains in the rectal area. The GP tried switching me onto different anti-inflammatories and prescribing codeine to take alongside them, but they didn't work. I was prescribed dihydroxycodeine, a stronger painkiller, which did nothing but give me the mother of all headaches the next day.

Every time I went to the GP I was offered hormones, which I persisted in refusing. I was almost transferred to a specialist at one point, but then I moved house and changed doctors, and I didn't follow it up at the new GP, because it's easy to be blasé about pain when you're not in it, and also because of embarrassment by the idea of having to have a gynaecological examination. I tried sticking with the mefenamic acid and codeine combination, because that was what seemed to work best. Frequently I had to take days off work because of the dysmenorrhoea.
In 2009, the dysmenorrhoea became so bad that at the worst point I had diarrhoea for four days and could hardly eat or drink because of the pain. I also started bleeding from the rectum. I went to the GP and asked to be referred to a gynaecologist. I got offered contraceptive hormones again. I told the GP I did not want hormones and would rather have a hysterectomy if it came down to that, and insisted on being referred to a gynaecologist.

It took a few months for the referral to come through, and in this time I did some research and came up with my mushroom theory, which I started testing (more on that later). I had my first appointment with the gynaecologist in January 2010, and an ultrasound scan identified growths on both my ovaries consistent with endometriosis, and a 4 cm non-vascularised mass, apparently attached to my left ovary. I had an MRI scan to investigate further, and the results confirmed I had endometriosis on both ovaries, on the outside of the sigmoid colon, and adenomyosis (endometriosis growing through the wall of the uterus).

Mushroom theory

While waiting to be referred to a gynaecologist, I read up about endometriosis. I read that endometriotic tissue expresses aromatase. Being an ex-chemist, I know that aromatase is used to synthesise oestrogen from testosterone in the fatty tissues. I also read that substances that act as aromatase inhibitors had been investigated as possible treatments for endometriosis.

Unrelated to this while reading stuff on a general science forum, I also read this paper, which reports that mushrooms have been found to contain an aromatase inhibitor, and that they were used successfully in a trial to stop the growth of oestrogen-dependent cancers in postmenopausal women.
My reasoning for eating more mushrooms is thus: endometriotic tissue expresses aromatase (for reasons unknown), which synthesises oestrogen. The high concentration of oestrogen in the endometriotic tissue may be what causes it to proliferate outside the uterus and grow aggressively in the abdominal cavity. Aromatase inhibitors are thought to reduce the symptoms of endometriosis in preliminary studies. Mushrooms contain what has been proven to be an effective aromatase inhibitor.

I started eating mushrooms every day. Immediately, I stopped suffering from diarrhoea during menstruation. On the second month, the pain was reduced, and on the third month, the pain had diminished to discomfort which was relieved by taking mefenamic acid. I have not suffered from significant pain or diarrhoea as a result of menstruation since then.

Warnings

I'm a chemist and not a gynaecologist. This article is not a substitute for medical advice. If you have severe dysmenorrhoea, you need to see a gynaecologist and have it properly diagnosed, and I encourage you to read up on the options available to you.

If my reasoning is correct, mushrooms should not be eaten excessively by men or postmenopausal women without medical advice and monitoring. The reason for this is because men and non-menstruating women get all their oestrogen from aromatase synthesis in fat and other tissues. The ovaries of menstruating women are involved in a feedback loop with the pituitary gland that ensures they always produce a certain amount of oestrogen. Lack of oestrogen in the body can cause osteoporosis and other bone density problems.

This treatment is an experiment devised by myself (a sufferer of endometriosis) and I'm being monitored by my gynaecologist to see if the condition becomes any worse. I hope the mushrooms continue to work, and I'll keep this page updated on how things progress.

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