Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
This post may contain TMI.
This is a summary of my own personal journey with adenomyosis.
About a year and a half back I began having debilitating pain, bleeding, and swelling about 2 weeks out of every month. To make a long story short, I was put on pain meds, hormones, ect., and was finally given the adenomyosis diagnosis. I recall my gyno briefly, and quite nonchalantly saying to "eat better", but I disregarded it, as it seemed unimportant.
The months following, things got worse, I switched pills a few times, my hormones were out of control, I scared myself at times. I'd go from tears to rage in .2 seconds. Looking back, it must have been a long dreadful year for my family. I would pray night and day for healing, or an answer to my problems at the very least.
I soon came face to face with the decision to have a hysterectomy. This only seemed like a good idea during those unbearable weeks of suffering. The rest of the month I hormonally mourned the babies that would never be, or the part of my body that once housed the three miracles I already had. I had no choice, this was to be my only escape from the misery brought on by the adenomyosis. However, I always cancelled appointments, or pushed them back in the hopes that my prayers would be answered, and be able to keep my uterus.
In 2013, my prayers had be answered. My sister in law was telling me about this "diet" book she was reading. The name of the book was Trim Healthy Mama, written by two Christian home schooling mothers, who had compiled a book of a seemingly perfect diet, after failed attempts at all the "fad" diets. It's a low glycemic diet, but the book was more than just diet and recipes, it also included chapters on hormones, pregnancy, marriage, ect. So, long story short, I bought the book (not with the Adeno in mind at the time). In addition to the recommended diet of the book, I also stopped eating a great majority of processed foods and began eating primarily whole foods. Within a month, the pain and swelling had gone down, by month two, all my symptoms were considerably less. In addition to that my cycles were normal for the first time in my life. I was shocked by what was happening. I began to do research to figure out if it was in fact my diet that was having an impact on my adenomyosis. Sure enough I had discovered that Omega 6 is an inflammatory, and Omega 3 is an anti-inflammatory. Omega 6's are primarily found in processed foods, all the stuff in the center isles at the supermarket, all the stuff I had been eating, but had given up. Omega 3's are found in things like salmon, flaxseeds, chia seeds, nuts, eggs, pasture fed meat and milk, and beans, just to name a few. All the things I was eating...in high amounts due to my new diet.
Now I'm not a doctor, or a biologist, but I strongly feel that the Omega 6's were, at the very least, adding to the pain, swelling and bleeding caused by the adenomyosis, and by greatly decreasing those inflammatories, and increasing the Omega 3's (anti-inflammatories) I have now been able to, almost eliminate, or alleviate all of my symptoms. I say almost because I still have heavy cycles, but they are nowhere as bad as they had been.
I'm not sharing this because I think it will be everyone's answer, or everyone's cure, but it maybe someone's. It is worth a shot. All I have is my own personal experience to back it up, but I'll tell ya, I've been pain free and without swelling, greatly decreased bleeding, no hormone pills, and no pain pills for eight straight months now, and that has to have some kind of credibility. The doctors aren't going to tell you this. Either because they don't know or they can't make money off sharing this with you.
So if you are a woman suffering from Adenomyosis, newly diagnosed, or awaiting surgery, I urge you to try and adjust your diet. Eat less precessed foods, and more whole foods, and it wouldn't hurt to add it some fish oil pills, it can't hurt (the only pills I take now).
No more adeno....regular cycles....I think I'm ready for baby #4. ;)