1. Altered gut motility
Motility is essentially the movement of food from the top of the tube (mouth) to the bottom of the tube (anus). Peristalsis of our muscles is one way that this happens.
In endometriosis motility can be altered – being either sped up or slowed down. This can be caused by a number of things such as having a tight pelvic floor, endometriosis tissue or adhesions, stress and certain medications just to name a few!
2. Altered gut sensitivity
Everyone on the planet has a connection between our gut and our brain. Many people don’t realise that we have an entire nervous system in out gut. It’s called the enteric nervous system (aka the GUT brain).
The gut brain is connected to the head brain (central nervous system) via the vagus nerve. It’s like we have a little phone in our gut and a little phone in our brain connected by a wire and they’re chatting constantly.
For some people, the chatting feels a lot more like yelling. We call this visceral hypersensitivity.
There’s research that shows that people with endometriosis might have more sensitivity in their bowel and pelvic organs. This heightened sensitivity might explain the increase in pain in people with endo.
Having a highly sensitive gut is not fun and is exactly why we need to not just “cut out foods” but also work alongside our nervous system!
3. Gut microbiota out of balance
We also all have a little ecosystem of microbes in our gut and vulvovaginal area.
Fascinatingly we have research that shows that people with endo might have an increase in the less favourable microbes and a decrease in the more favourable ones.
Because our microbiota play a key role in our health (such as supporting our immune system, producing neurotransmitters and micronutrients) - this is a VERY important finding and hopefully an avenue for future treatment.
