Your Health: Preventing period pain

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Nearly 28 million women suffer from painful uterine fibroids and a related condition called endometriosis.

Both cause severe pain and may lead to infertility, but there’s hope for those who have endured this excruciating pain.

Caitlin Winegrove is an elementary school teacher who hopes to have children of her own.

“In teaching first grade, it’s very important that you move quickly and show up with your energy every day,” Winegrove said.

But each menstrual period, she’s sitting down from the pain of fibroid tumors and endometriosis. Fibroids are non-cancerous stalk-like growths inside the uterus. Endometriosis causes tissue to grow outside the uterus.

“With fibroid pain, people feel very heavy, and, like, a pressure associated with it,” said Dr. Latasha Murphy. “With endometriosis pain, typically, that’s described as a burning or sharp stabbing type of sensation.”

Murphy performed Winegrove’s minimally-invasive laparoscopy revealing 10 fibroids and removing endometriosis from her pelvis.

After the procedure, Murphy prescribed a new FDA-approved drug called Myfembree.

“So, the way it works is, it decreases the brain’s message to the ovaries to create estrogen,” Murphy said. “Estrogen stimulates endometriosis and fibroids to grow.”

It’s been a lifesaver for Winegrove.

“I haven’t been experiencing, really, any cramping,” Winegrove said. “I’ve had very light periods since starting it.”

More: Your Health

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