Sep 11, 2008 6:00 pm US/Eastern
Doctors Try New Approach To Treating Endometriosis
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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A commonly used treatment for breast cancer proves successful at reducing the pain of endometriosis.
A commonly used treatment for breast cancer proves successful at reducing the pain of an entirely different illness.
Healthwatch reporter Kellye Lynn says local doctors are combining two drugs to ease the discomfort of endometriosis.
Amy Maddox says the severe pain started when her first period arrived 22 years ago. Every month, Amy was on her back.
"Intense pain where I couldn't really even function," said Maddox.
An official diagnosis didn't come until Amy turned 24. She had endometriosis.
"I really had to go on the Internet and look it up and see what it really meant," she said.
"The best way to define endometriosis is to say that it is the menstrual tissue that grows outside the uterus," said Dr. Fermin Barrueto with Mercy Medical Center.
It's a disorder that affects up to 10 percent of women--50 percent of premenopausal woman and more than 85 percent of women who have pelvic pain.
The strongest pain medications like narcotics may take care of it for two to three hours, but the pain still comes back.
Now doctors have found a way to relieve the pain with a pill. They're combining aromatase inhibitors with the endometriosis drug Lupron.
"When you use the combination of these two drugs, you have a better chance," Dr. Barrueto said.
Dr. Barrueto says aromatase inhibitors block the production of estrogen which suppresses the growth of endometriosis and reduces inflammation.
But the drugs are not without side effects. Some of the most common ones are hot flashes, mood swings and reduced libido.
For Amy, the side effects are much easier to take than the discomfort she once felt.
"You just kind of learn how to dress in layers and that's about it," she said.
Dr. Barrueto says 60 percent of patients who use this combined therapy will experience a significant reduction in their pain.
Aromatase inhibitors have been well established in the treatment of breast cancer, a therapy discovered by a Baltimore scientist.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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