Prepare to be amazed as researchers from Sydney’s Royal Hospital for Women achieve an incredible world-first accomplishment.
Their groundbreaking leap forward has the potential to completely transform the way endometriosis is treated, bringing hope and relief to countless women suffering from this excruciating and debilitating disease.
In a remarkable feat, the researchers successfully grew tissue representing every known type of endometriosis, allowing them to observe crucial changes and compare various treatment responses.
This groundbreaking discovery opens the door to personalized treatments tailored to the type of endometriosis a woman is battling, potentially eliminating the need for fertility treatments altogether.
Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Jason Abbott, of Sydney Royal Hospital for Women, draws a remarkable parallel between this development and the groundbreaking advancements made in breast cancer treatment three decades ago.
This monumental achievement promises to revolutionize the field of endometriosis treatment, offering renewed hope to those affected.
Endometriosis, a chronic disease that afflicts at least one in nine Australian women and girls, inflicts a myriad of distressing symptoms including abdominal pain, heavy periods, bloating, bladder and bowel bleeding, exhaustion, anxiety triggered by agonizing pain, and infertility. With this sensational breakthrough, the future looks brighter than ever for women battling this silent tormentor.
Australian fashion designer Kate Ford has been living with the painful disease for 15 years after being diagnosed as a teenager.
“I was fainting. I was vomiting. I was getting worse and worse,” she told AAP.
“I just couldn’t do anything about it. The only option was to go on the pill when I was literally 15 and I opted not to do that.
“I ended up just having to deal with the pain until I was old enough to get the surgery at 17.”
Ford says intense pain can strike at any moment.
“You can be good one second, just sitting there smiling, no pain, and then within a minute, it’s like the life has been wiped out of you.
“You go white, you faint, you’re vomiting, you’re in pain, like someone’s stabbing you in the stomach.”
She endured four invasive laparoscopy surgeries before undergoing fertility treatments that led to the birth of her twins in February last year.
She welcomed the scientific discoveries being made about endometriosis.
“But they still just don’t understand what it is,” she said.
Prof Abbott says the breakthrough means different types of endometriosis will be targeted and treated more effectively, in a similar way to breast cancer.
“Thirty years ago, we treated all breast cancers the same,” he said.
“We now know there are many different types of breast cancer and treat them accordingly.
“By knowing the type of endometriosis, we will be able to predict whether a patient is likely to experience an aggressive, invasive form of the disease and offer treatment to preserve her fertility,” she said.
