Dietary changes found to help women with endometriosis

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A Melbourne-led trial has shown dietary changes can provide relief to some women with endometriosis. Researchers from Monash University found a low FODMAP diet improved gastrointestinal symptoms severity in 60% of women with endometriosis. More than 75% of women with endometriosis experience gastrointestinal symptoms.

Transcript

00:00Around 1 in 7 Australian women have endometriosis and it's most commonly known for causing painful

00:08menstrual cycles and also problems with infertility. But around 3 quarters of women with endometriosis

00:15also suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms. And Monash University researchers say that

00:21until now very little research has been done around the world to investigate the impact

00:26of diet on those symptoms. They've recruited 35 women to take part in a randomised low FODMAP

00:34diet and they say the results are promising. We found that the low FODMAP diet improved gastrointestinal

00:42symptoms severity in 60% of women with endometriosis and also led to improvements in abdominal pain,

00:49bloating and improvements in quality of life. A low FODMAP diet eliminates certain foods that

00:55have high FODMAP content. So these are things like onion, garlic and also high lactose milk.

01:01Researchers now want to conduct a much larger trial which tests the real life applications.

01:07So instead of providing the food portions, they want women with endometriosis to receive advice

01:13from dietitians and then create their own menus to see whether or not this really has a lasting

01:19impact on some of those symptoms like abdominal pain and bloating.

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