Cerebral Endometriosis and Seizures: What to Know

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Full transcript of the original video, lightly edited for readability.

The majority of the world has been taught to think of endometriosis as a pelvic disease the uterus the ovaries the fallopian tubes the pelvic cavity. That is the box and for decades women have been trapped inside that box. So when a woman says my symptoms are not just pelvic the system often treats her like she is exaggerating when she says my brain changes around my cycle she gets dismissed when she says my seizures get worse around my period she gets sent to neurology but nobody asked the deeper question why is this happening with the rhythm of her cycle.

That is the part most people miss the menstrual cycle is not just a reproductive event it is a neurological event it is an immune event it is an inflammatory event it is a hormonal wave that affects the entire body including the brain and in rare cases endometriosis can push this conversation into a place most people are not ready for cerebral endometriosis endometriosis in or near the central nervous system now let me be very clear this is rare very rare. This is not me saying every woman with endometriosis has brain endometriosis.

This is not me saying every headache seizure panic attack or neurological symptom is caused by a brain lesion but rare does not mean impossible rare does not mean irrelevant and rare definitely does not mean women should be dismissed when their symptoms follow a clear biological pattern cerebral endometriosis as one of the rarest forms of extra pelvic endometriosis where endometriotic tissue may survive in the central nervous system however catamenial epilepsy can absolutely happen without cerebral endometriosis and. This is where the whole conversation changes because if endometriosis can affect the brain without actually being there then endometriosis is not simply bad periods it is not just cramps it is not just a fertility issue it is a systemic disease that can interact with the immune system the vascular system and the nervous system.

So let's explain the mechanism catamenial epilepsy is a seizure pattern where seizures worsen during specific parts of the menstrual cycle usually right before or during menstruation sometimes around ovulation why because estrogen and progesterone do not only affect the uterus they affect the brain estrogen tends to be more excitatory it can increase neuronal firing it can amplify glutamate activity it can lower the seizure threshold progesterone on the other hand tends to be protective not just progesterone itself. But what progesterone becomes progesterone converts into neurosteroids like allopregnanolone alopregnanolone helps activate GABA a receptors and GABA is the brain's breaking system so.

Think of it like this estrogen can press the accelerator progesterone and alopregnanolone help press the brake. Now what happens right before a period progesterone drops alopregnanalone drops the break weakens and if the brain is already inflamed irritated or structurally vulnerable that drop can create a seizure window that is catamenial epilepsy but cerebral endometriosis takes this one step further because now we are not just talking about hormone fluctuations affecting brain chemistry we are talking about the possibility of hormone responsive endometriotic tissue existing inside a place where it should never be the brain the tissue can still respond to hormones.

But here is the terrifying difference the uterus has an exit the brain does not if that tissue bleeds inside the brain the blood has nowhere to go it becomes trapped red blood cells break down iron is released hemosiderin accumulates oxidative stress rises microglia activate astrocytes become disrupted the tissue around that lesion becomes inflamed and electrically unstable and electrically unstable brain tissue can become a seizure generator. That is the mechanism hormones shift the lesion responds bleeding or swelling increases iron irritates the tissue microglia release inflammatory signals GABA Protection drops that is not hysteria that is literally neuroendocrine pathology I want to restate this is extremely rare only seven to eight cases of cerebral endometriosis have been recorded cerebral endometriosis is a physical structural tissue whose presence creates a bleeding and inflammatory seizure focus what most women are bound to have is catamenial epilepsy seizures these worsen in a menstrual cycle pattern because of estrogen progesterone and neurosteroid shifts change neuronal excitability so catamenial epilepsy is the larger category and cerebral endometriosis is a rare possible cause inside that category and this distinction matters because it shows that there are underlying mechanisms if endometriosis can cause seizures without physically being in the brain I keep saying endometriosis is not just a reproductive disease it is a system's disease now the obvious question is how could endometriosis even reach the brain the old retrograde menstruation theory is not enough we have to think deeper one possibility is spread through the bloodstream another is lymphatic spread another is movement through Batson's Venus plexus a valvular Venus network connecting the pelvis spine and cranial venous system pressure changes in the pelvis may allow retrograde movement of cells upward there is also the stem cell theory the endometrium contains powerful regenerative cells if they enter circulation and land in a permissive environment they may explain distant lesions the deeper you study it the less it behaves like a simple gynecological disease it behaves like misplaced survival programming cells migrate evade immune surveillance and build blood supply cells respond to estrogen resist progesterone inflame nerves and remodel tissue cells survive where they should die that is not just period pain that is a biological insurgency and my role the reason I do this work is to connect dots that were left scattered across different fields because a neurologist may see seizures a gynecologist may see pelvic pain but the woman is one body one timeline one cycle and sometimes the menstrual pattern is the clue everyone keeps ignoring.

So when a woman has seizures that worsen around her period when her neurological symptoms flare predictably before bleeding that pattern matters it should not be brushed off again. This is not about fear it is about pattern recognition most women with endometriosis will never have cerebral endometriosis but those with cyclic symptoms deserve to be taken seriously they deserve doctors who ask does this follow the menstrual cycle are there known endometriosis or adenomyosis are there pelvic symptoms has imaging been done could this be neuroendocrine inflammation.

That is the shift the future of endometriosis research is not pretending the body is disconnected it is understanding the whole system mechanisms of endometriosis and its biology have always been bigger and if we're serious about helping women we have to stop asking how can this symptom be separate and start asking a better question what is the underlying broken systems that connect them all and if you guys are still looking for a solution look into our advanced duo this is our Endol supplement it can be purchased on Amazon or our website endol.com.