Issues
Managing Endometriosis Beyond Menstrual Pain
Many women, right from when they have their first menstrual cycle, experience varying forms of pains and discomfort which is easily pegged down as a painful period, also known as Dysmenorrhea.
Those who have painful periods experience the symptoms before their flow starts, others during the period but all, experience a respite when it stops.
There are some other women who experience a higher degree of pain, accompanied with bleeding, which is not limited to the vagina alone but other parts of the body.
The pain isn’t only experienced during their monthly menstrual cycle but can occur at any time of the month and lasts through several days. It is called endometriosis.
Endometriosis is a condition where the tissues similar to those that line the uterus grow outside it on other organs in the pelvis, such as the fallopian tubes and the ovaries.
It is said that one in 10 women live with endometriosis, while about 176 million women worldwide suffer from the condition.
Researchers believe that an increase in the level of estrogen in a woman could trigger some of the symptoms.
Estrogen is the hormone that causes the uterine lining to thicken each month.
According to John Hopkins Medicine based in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., during a woman’s regular menstrual cycle, this tissue builds up and is shed if she doesn’t become pregnant.
They explained that patients with endometriosis have endometrial-type tissue outside of the uterus.
“Women with endometriosis develop tissue that looks and acts like endometrial tissue outside the uterus, usually on other reproductive organs inside the pelvis or in the abdominal cavity.
“Each month, this misplaced tissue responds to the hormonal changes to the menstrual cycle by building up and breaking down just as the endometrium does, resulting in small bleeding inside of the uterus.’’
Mrs Kemi Adekomi, a woman who has lived with endometriosis for about 12 years, says she never experienced pain during her periods until the condition started, when she was almost 30.
“It was very funny that morning when I woke up and started experiencing severe pains.
“It’s my period but I don’t usually experience pain but this is not normal. Beginning from that day, I started having menstrual pains, and I was almost 30 years old.
“And that began my journey with endometriosis,’’ she said.
Dr Abayomi Ajayi, a gynaecologist and founder of Endometriosis Support Group, Nigeria (ESGN), says that pains can occur anytime of the month, from any region around the abdomen, depending on the placement of the endometrium.
Ajayi, who is also the CEO, Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos, says: It can happen, even under the navel, so the woman may be bleeding under the navel.
“It could happen that it’s in the chest wall, in which case the person may be coughing out blood.
“Pain could be there all the time; the main symptom is pain. This pain could be at any time,’’ he said.
Confirming this, Adekomi said the pains weren’t limited to her monthly periods but could be experienced at any time of the month.
“At some point, it transcended to pains at any time of the month. We need to take note that it’s not only at your period that you could have endometrial pains,’’ she said.
Narrating her experience with treatment for endometriosis, Adekomi said she had to undergo surgery before she could get pregnant.
“My wedding came and there came the real problem of endometriosis. I was not able to take in immediately and then I started to fret.
“I was waiting to get pregnant after my wedding for almost two years.
“I went back to my gynaecologists and they said, to be sure and ascertain what your problem is, you need to go and get a laparoscopy.
“Then I went in for the surgery, they took some biopsies and it was confirmed that what I had was endometriosis.
“The surgery was successful and they had to put me on drugs and injection once a month.
“Miraculously, the third month after my surgery I took in,’’ she said.
Mayo Clinic Symptoms Checker says the signs and symptoms of endometriosis may include; painful periods, pain with intercourse, pain with bowel movement or urination.
Others are excessive bleeding, infertility, fatigue, diarrhoea, constipation, bloating and nausea.
Mayo Clinic further explained that the condition is sometimes mistaken for other conditions such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) or ovarian cysts that can cause pelvic pain.
“It may be confused with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), a condition that causes bouts of diarrhoea, constipation and abdominal cramping.
“IBS can accompany endometriosis, which can complicate the diagnosis,’’ the doctors added.
While having endometriosis is not a “death sentence’’, complications could lead to death.
WebMD, an American corporation known primarily as an online publisher of news and information pertaining to human health and well-being, says medications could ease the pains and make the person feel better but won’t cure the condition.
Treatment of endometriosis could include therapies such as hormonal contraceptives – birth control pills, patches and vagina rings – to help control the hormones responsible for the buildup of endometrial tissue each month.
Surgeries such as laparoscopy and hysterectomy (removal of the womb) can also be used for treatment of the condition.
However, laparoscopic surgery is the most common procedure used to diagnose and treat the condition.
British Columbia HealthLinkBC, says a laparoscopy is done to examine the pelvic organs and remove implants and scar tissue.
Some celebrities, who suffer the condition, have tried to break the silence about endometriosis, by speaking about it.
Dolly Parton, an international celebrity, who was taken to the hospital to have a partial hysterectomy during a tour in 1982, said she suffered from depression after learning she would not be able to have children.
“Every day I thought, I wish I had the nerve to kill myself,’’ she said.
Another international celebrity, Whoopi Goldberg, at the Endo Foundation’s 2009 Blossom Ball, was surprised to learn that many women weren’t aware of the condition.
Goldberg, who suffers the condition, said she had known she had it for a long time.
Nigeria’s ex-Beauty Queen, Nike Oshinowo, disclosed in interviews that she had over 17 surgeries because of endometriosis.
She told Vanguard that the pains were so intense that at one point, she passed out.
“Until I turned 40, Nigerians didn’t know I suffered from endometriosis.
“At last, it was understood why if I come to your party, at 8 p.m. I had to go home to bed and to take my painkillers.
“When you live with endometriosis, you live with pain.
“I have a library in my home. It is a library about pain. I have so many books on pain cure.
“Anyone experiencing painful period should see a doctor,’’ she advised women.
Corporate individuals and NGOs also try to put up programmes to create awareness during Endometriosis Awareness Month, which is marked annually in the month of March.
While giving her testimonial at “The 2019 Endo Carnival and March’’ in Lagos, Adekomi urged women to go for checkups to ensure they know what the problem is.
“When you know what a problem is, it’s easier to attack it.
“When I knew what the problem was, I went to the people who were fit to handle it,’’ she said.
Chioma Echendu, a student of Canon James Pearse Anglican College, Lagos, and winner of the 2019 ESGN Essay Contest, said she learned a lot about endometriosis from the organisation’s visits to her school.
“This is not the first time they are coming to our school. We read a lot about it, we researched on it.
“I wrote about what endometriosis is and what it’s not. It’s impact on females; socially, physically, emotionally and mentally.
“There’s no cure for endometriosis but you can manage it. Having it is not the end of one’s life,’’ she said.
Her English Language Teacher, Ms Yomi Opeodu, said students from her school had been winning the essay contest in the last three years because they’re well informed about the condition.
“When the gynaecologist started questioning the Junior Secondary School ((JSS) students, she was amazed; they’ve been reading about it,’’ she added.
Experts say managing endometriosis could mean making lifestyle adjustments that may help reduce pains and discomfort for people living with the condition.
Jean Hailes, a wellbeing blog for women, says though there is no direct evidence that lifestyle reduces the severity of endometriosis; physical activity, exercise, sleep, stress management and relaxation help improve health.
Doyin Popoola, nutritionist and Face of ESGN 2019, says there are some foods that people with the condition should eat more while some other foods should be avoided.
Popoola, who also works at “Oh So Nutrition’’, said those suffering from the condition should increase their intake of foods that contain Omega 3 fat, such as Salmon, Sardine, Mackerel and Canola oil.
“Also, they should avoid red meat because they increase the level of estrogen.
“They should avoid caffeine, avoid alcohol, trans-fat and processed fats.
“They should also increase their intake of fruits and vegetables,’’ she said.
Odafe writes for the News Agency of Nigeria.
Joan Odafe
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
