Postpartum dysmenorrhea beware of adenomyosis

Secondary dysmenorrhea made her want to jump off the building

Ms. Liu is an employee of a large state-owned enterprise in Zhengzhou. Since giving birth, she found that she had slight pain in her lower abdomen every time she had her period, and her menstrual flow was heavier than before. However, because Ms. Liu had never had a history of dysmenorrhea before, and the pain was not strong and tolerable, she did not take it too seriously, thinking that she had hurt her body during childbirth, and paid more attention to maintenance and rest.

But the dysmenorrhea did not ease, but became more and more severe, and finally developed to the point where painkillers were ineffective. The unbearable pain made Ms. Liu think of suicide many times. "It hurts so much, I can't stand it, I just want to die, and then I won't feel any more pain." Ms. Liu said that twice she even struggled to the window and wanted to jump down to end her life. Since then, every time Ms. Liu had her period, her parents, husband and even her parents-in-law had to take turns to watch over her to prevent her from committing suicide because she couldn't stand the pain.

One day two years ago, Ms. Liu, who suffered from dysmenorrhea, was rushed to the hospital for emergency examination. B-ultrasound showed that her uterus was abnormally enlarged and the posterior wall of the uterus thickened to 4 cm; blood tests found that Ms. Liu also suffered from severe anemia. The normal hemoglobin should be 120 grams/liter, but she only had 30 grams/liter, which was caused by long-term excessive menstrual bleeding. Taking all the circumstances into consideration, Ms. Liu was diagnosed with adenomyosis.

Secondary dysmenorrhea alerts adenomyosis

Adenomyosis is a gynecological disease with a higher incidence in recent years. In the past, adenomyosis was regarded as a type of endometriosis in medicine, called "intrinsic endometriosis", but medical research in recent years has shown that its causes, clinical manifestations, etc. are not exactly the same as endometriosis. It is now generally believed that these are two different types of diseases.

The uterus is divided into three layers from the inside to the outside. The innermost layer is the soft mucosal tissue, which is the endometrium. The periodic shedding and bleeding of the endometrium form menstruation; the middle layer is the thick muscle layer, and the outermost layer is the serosal layer. If the endometrial tissue enters the uterine muscle layer for various reasons and "takes root and grows", it will cause adenomyosis.

Endometrial tissue that enters the myometrium will also repeat the process of growth and shedding under the action of estrogen, forming "menstruation". However, menstrual blood cannot be discharged from the myometrium, so it will accumulate in the myometrium, causing pain and uterine enlargement. In the early stage of the disease, the pain is not severe because there is less blood stasis. However, as the disease progresses, the blood stasis increases, and the patient's pain during menstruation will gradually increase, causing secondary progressive dysmenorrhea.