Endometriosis Is a Systemic Disease

Lately I’ve seen a few TikToks that stopped me in my tracks. Women were sharing their endometriosis stories — not just about pain around their cycles, but about endometriosis masses being found in places like their leg, their armpit, and even their lymph nodes. And every time I see something like this, I’m reminded just how misunderstood this disease still is.

And I recently made a Tik Tok about this and my comment section had HUNDREDS of women sharing their stories, the BS they’ve been told like “you can’t have endometriosis if you don’t have period pain”, have lost organs and are still impacted.

Here’s the thing: endometriosis is not a period disease. It’s not “just” a reproductive issue. It’s a whole-body disease... and cases / stories like these are proof.

We’ve long known that endo can spread outside of the reproductive cavity, but seeing it show up in places far beyond the pelvis is a clear reminder: this is a systemic condition.

Researchers have documented endometriosis lesions on the diaphragm, in the lungs, in the GI tract, and yes... even in the lymphatic system or skin (which is our body's largest organ). That’s not just painful and disruptive; it challenges the outdated narrative that endo is only about “bad periods"... or that it's just caused by retrograde menstruation.

And when we shift our lens, it changes everything about how endometriosis should be treated.

Because if we keep calling it a “period problem,” we limit the support people receive.

You can’t manage a full-body disease with just a prescription for birth control. Or medically induced menopause. You can’t heal it with only painkillers. Surgery (even excision). And you definitely can’t dismiss it as “just part of being a woman.”

Managing endometriosis well means acknowledging its complexity. It means recognizing the importance of having a skilled excision surgeon — and combining that with a whole-body approach that supports your overall health. 

Things like gut health, blood sugar stability, mineral balance, lymphatic drainage, and lowering systemic inflammation all play a role in how your body responds to endo. There are things That I focus on with my 1:1 clients.

That’s why I believe the best outcomes come from combining both realms of medicine: the precision of conventional care (like surgery with the right specialist) and the supportive, root-cause lens of functional medicine (nutrition, lifestyle, and targeted testing to understand your unique body).

Is it perfect? No. But when you bring these approaches together, you give yourself the widest possible net of support — not just for managing pain, but for improving your overall quality of life. This disease may not have a cure, but you can get your life back from it.

So if you take nothing else away from this, let it be this:

👉 Endometriosis is not a “period problem.” It’s a full-body disease.
👉 And you deserve a full-body approach to care.

And this is exactly where my work comes in. With my 1:1 clients, I help them go deeper than symptom management.

We run targeted labs, dig into their nutrition and mineral status, uncover hidden imbalances, and build them a plan that’s completely personalized to THEM + support their body’s ability to heal.

Because when you understand the why behind your symptoms, you can create a plan to finally start to feel like yourself again — not just someone surviving flare to flare. If you’re ready for this level of support, book a discovery call below or send me a DM on IG.