By Caroline Rwenji

Like any other young girl, all she wanted when she grew up was a handsome and caring husband, a fairy-tale wedding and children to complete a perfect family.

Joyce Wanjiku was certain of achieving her wishes when something went amiss.  She was only 25 and could not conceive. She was devastated as she waited month after month to find out if she had conceived.  The only thing that was regularly like a clockwork was painful menses. Wanjiku narrates she started her menses at 16 while in high school. After a year, she began having severe pains during her period.

“The disease was a nightmare to me, my family and friends. The pains rendered me helpless and sick. At 18, the pains became intense and I had to be admitted in hospital for one week every month,” Wanjiku says.

At 22, her pains were so severe that they lasted throughout the cycle. She was treated for various ailments and even had her appendix removed. She was later treated for an ovarian cyst and pelvic inflammatory disease on several occasions but the pain did not subside.

She was put on birth control pills but that did not work until doctors put on her injectable birth control contraceptive known depo provera.

“The pains disappeared as long as I was using the contraceptive. But I needed to conceive, so I stopped taking it to put my fertility back on track,” she offers

Soon after, the pain resumed and her doctor advised her to go for laparoscopy (surgery), where she was diagnosed with endometriosis.

Prof Koigi Kamau, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Nairobi Hospital, says endometriosis is also referred to as ectopic endometrium. The endometrium is the lining of the uterus that prepares the womb for implantation of eggs in readiness for fertilisation.

The condition occurs when the endometrium grows and attaches itself to other organs like the pelvis, rectum and fallopian tubes.

immune system

Causes are retrograde menstruation, which is the backward movement of menstrual fluids through the fallopian tubes to the peritoneal cavity.

Cellular metaplasia is another cause of endometriosis. This is where cells change in character and form.

Poor immune system also causes the condition.

One can tell they have the condition when they have very painful menses (dysmenorrhea), pelvic pain and pain during sexual intercourse.

“If the pain is so intense that you cannot go about your daily activities, you should see a doctor,” he advised.

Dr Eustace Gatembura, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Savannah Health Centre, said the condition can only be managed. He said birth control pills are given to the patient but on severe cases, depo provera, is used.