Health
Woman suffers pain for 20 years until her mystery ailment is finally diagnosed
A woman who suffered intensely painful periods for some 20 years was finally diagnosed with a revealing ailment — helping to clear up a mystery that began plaguing her even before she became a teenager.
Jen Moore, 35, a former wedding cake baker, said she was unable to stand up straight when she first began experiencing painful periods as a girl of 11 years old.
She said doctors put her on birth control pills to try to reduce her periods, according to news agency SWNS — but that didn’t alleviate her pain over the years.
WOMAN WITH CANCER REVEALS THE DIET THAT SHE SAYS SAVED HER LIFE
She was informed by doctors that what she was experiencing was “normal,” she told the news agency — and that she was just someone who was “unlucky” to have painful menstrual periods.
But during the COVID lockdown, when she came off the contraceptives after 22 years, she said she “didn’t recognize the person she became” and would often pass out from the pain and blood loss.
When she was young, Jen Moore of the U.K. (not pictured) said her mother took her to see doctors — and they were told her painful periods would stop eventually. (iStock)
When she went to a physician due to her menstrual pain and had an ultrasound, she was told that no endometriosis had been detected, she told SWNS.
Not satisfied, Moore, of Cambridge, England, paid on her own to have an MRI scan.
She was ultimately diagnosed with endometriosis and adenomyosis, conditions in which the lining of the uterus grows in places where it should not be.
FDA APPROVES OPIOID-FREE PAIN MEDICATION WITH ‘NO SIGN OF ADDICTION’
Said Moore, “At the time, I thought it was normal because I didn’t know any different.”
When she was young, she said, her mother took her to see doctors — and Moore said she was told that her painful periods eventually would stop.
“I thought it was normal because I didn’t know any different.”
She said doctors told her that even if she did have endometriosis, “all they would do is put me on the pill.”
She also said that today she still feels “rage” at what happened to her.
There is an “urgent need,” said the CEO (not pictured) of a women’s wellness organization, “for greater awareness, early diagnosis and better support for those living with the condition” known as endometriosis. (iStock)
“I also feel heartbroken,” she told SWNS, “thinking about myself as an 11-year-old who had no idea she was about to go through so many of these things.”
She added, “I feel hope that generations are standing up and that they don’t want to tolerate this anymore.”
TRUMP AND A HEALTHIER AMERICA WELCOMED BY DOCTORS: ‘NEW GOLDEN AGE’
Yet “I feel that it shouldn’t have to fall to the patients to do that,” she also said.
Moore said that even now, she feels “exhausted” and that there “isn’t an area of my life” that this hasn’t touched.
‘I’M A DOCTOR — HERE’S THE WELLNESS ROUTINE I FOLLOW FOR A LONGER, HEALTHIER LIFE’
She said that even though she had painful periods for so long, she wanted to go to college and try to live as normal a life as possible, “despite being bed-bound” for about a week every month.
She has learned, she said, that she has endometriosis on her bowels and her bladder — “it’s everywhere again, it’s just relentless.”
A woman was not satisfied with what she learned from an ultrasound — so she pushed to get further tests to figure out what was going on. (iStock)
She said she’s had “this condition damaging her organs for 22 years — that’s a lot of damage to unpick, so surgeries are never magic and [don’t] always provide a pain-free life.”
“Unfortunately,” she said, “there is still a lot of endometriosis for me.”
There is an “urgent need for greater awareness.”
Janet Lindsay, CEO of Wellbeing of Women, told SWNS, “Endometriosis is a condition that affects the lives of many women, often for years before a diagnosis is made … For too long, women’s pain has been dismissed or misunderstood.”
There is an “urgent need,” she said, “for greater awareness, early diagnosis, and better support for those living with the condition.”
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
Last year, Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin, discussed her recovery from surgery following an endometriosis diagnosis.
Irwin, 26, said her “inescapable” pain was dismissed by doctors for 10 years as she was tested for all kinds of diseases.
Bindi Irwin, pictured in May 2019 in Beverly Hills, California, discussed her battle with endometriosis last year. (John Wolfsohn/Getty Images)
“I was tested for everything,” Irwin told People magazine last summer. “Every tropical disease, Lyme disease, cancer, you name it. I had every blood test and scan imaginable.”
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health
Endometriosis, according to the Mayo Clinic, is a condition “in which cells similar to the lining of the uterus, or endometrium, grow outside the uterus,” as Fox News Digital previously reported.
“Endometriosis often involves the pelvic tissue and can envelop the ovaries and fallopian tubes.”
The condition can be severely painful for those suffering from it — and it can impact fertility and menstruation.
Lauryn Overhultz of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menu items.
Use escape to exit the menu.
Sign Up
Create a free account to access exclusive content, play games, solve puzzles, test your pop-culture knowledge and receive special offers.
Already have an account? Login
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
HIGH SALT INTAKE LINKED TO FASTER MEMORY DECLINE IN ONE GROUP, STUDY FINDS
After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES
This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ.
By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests.
The observational study, led by Jorge Nieva, M.D., of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at Keck Medicine, was presented this month at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in San Diego. It has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Researchers looked at dietary, smoking and demographic data for 187 patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer at age 50 or younger.
PANCREATIC CANCER PATIENT SURVIVAL DOUBLED WITH HIGH DOSE OF COMMON VITAMIN, STUDY FINDS
They found that among non-smokers, there was a link between healthier-than-average diets – rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains – and the chance of lung cancer development.
Young lung cancer patients ate more servings of dark green vegetables, legumes and whole grains compared to the average U.S. adult, the researchers found.
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests. (iStock)
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association.
“Commercially produced (non-organic) fruits, vegetables and whole grains are more likely to be associated with a higher residue of pesticides than dairy, meat and many processed foods,” according to Nieva. He also noted that agricultural workers exposed to pesticides tend to have higher rates of lung cancer.
HIDDEN VIRUS INSIDE GUT BACTERIA LINKED TO DOUBLED COLORECTAL CANCER RISK, STUDY FINDS
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” Nieva told Fox News Digital.
The disease is becoming more common in non-smokers 50 and younger, especially women – despite the fact that smoking rates have been falling for decades, the researcher noted.
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association. (iStock)
“These patients tend to have eaten much healthier diets before their diagnosis than the average American,” he went on. “We need to support research into understanding why Americans – and women in particular – who no longer smoke very much are still having lung cancer,” he said.
DEATHS FROM ONE TYPE OF CANCER ARE SURGING AMONG YOUNGER ADULTS WITHOUT COLLEGE DEGREES
The study did have some limitations, Nieva acknowledged, primarily that it relied on survey data and was limited by the participants’ memories of their food intake.
“Also, the survey participants were self-selected, and this could have biased the findings,” he told Fox News Digital.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking.”
The researchers did not test specific foods for pesticides, relying instead on average pesticide levels for certain types of food. Looking ahead, they plan to test patients’ blood and urine samples to directly measure pesticide levels, Nieva said.
Although the study shows only an association and does not prove that pesticides caused lung cancer, Nieva recommends that people wash their produce before eating and choose organic foods whenever possible.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES
“This work represents a critical step toward identifying modifiable environmental factors that may contribute to lung cancer in young adults,” said Nieva. “Our hope is that these insights can guide both public health recommendations and future investigation into lung cancer prevention.”
“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but is by no means certain,” a doctor said. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, said the study is “interesting,” but that it “raises far more questions than it answers.”
“It is a small study (around 150) and observational, so no proof,” the doctor, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but it is by no means certain,” Siegel went on. “How much exposure is needed? How much of it gets into food and in which areas? This requires much further study.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Kayla Nichols, communications director for Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, a distributed global network, said the organization agrees with the study’s conclusion that more research should be done on the rise in lung cancer, particularly in individuals eating diets higher in produce and fiber.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” the researcher told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“There is a bounty of existing research that already links pesticide exposure to increased risk of multiple types of cancers,” Nichols, who was also not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. She called for more research on chronic, low-level exposures to pesticides, as well as more effective policies to protect the public from pesticide residues on food.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, as well as industry partners including AstraZeneca and Genentech, among others.
Fox News Digital reached out to several pesticide companies and trade groups for comment.
-
Science3 minutes agoLyrids Meteor Shower: How to Watch, Peak Time and Weather Forecast
-
Health9 minutes agoGLP-1s Don’t Work for Everyone: What To Know if You’re Not Seeing Results
-
Culture21 minutes agoPoetry Challenge Day 3: W.H. Auden, The Poet and His Technique
-
Lifestyle27 minutes agoArmani Goes Back to the Archive
-
Education33 minutes agoVideo: Which Instant Coffee Is Best?
-
Technology39 minutes agoSpaceX cuts a deal to maybe buy Cursor for $60 billion
-
World45 minutes agoPope Leo urges Africans to stay and ‘serve your country’ instead of migrating as displacement climbs
-
Politics51 minutes agoDemocrats win Virginia redistricting fight, threatening Republican House majority