Pycnogenol (aka pine bark extract) and endometriosis

Endometriosis is (typically) a very painful condition that progresses (gets worse over time) and generally recurs (even after gold standard surgical treatment, excision).

So women who have endometriosis are often left managing pain for many, many years.

That’s where I come in.

A lot of what I do with my endo patients and clients is teach them how to eliminate (or greatly reduce) their endometriosis pain AND how to manage it best if it should recur.

When working with me we reset the body by healing it from the inside out - addressing inflammation, potential heavy metal exposures, hormonal imbalances, etc. along the way. In addition to this I may suggest taking some natural supplements.

A subset of natural supplements is herbal medicine or botanicals. Herbal medicine can be extremely effective at treating endometriosis (but to be clear, I consider it just one of the tools in my toolbelt).

Pycnogenol or pine bark extract is one medicine that has been shown to be effective at treating endometriosis pain. A 2007 study of 58 women with endometriosis (all surgically diagnosed with the condition) explored the effectiveness of pycnogenol. Thirty-two patients were assigned the Pycnogenol treatment group and took 60 mg Pycnogenol orally a day for 48 weeks. The other 26 patients acted as a control group, receiving standard treatment and took a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (Gn-RHa), leuprorelin acetate or lupron.

Treatment with Pycnogenol reduced pain scores and CA-125 as did treatment with Gn-RHa. Patients with smaller endometriomas responded better to treatment as compared to patients with larger endometriomas.

The authors concluded that pycnogenol was a therapeutic alternative.

Let me add pycnogenol possesses none of the side effects common to gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists like lupron. These most commonly include, hot flashes/sweats, headache/migraine, decreased libido (interest in sex), depression/emotional lability (changes in mood), dizziness, nausea/vomiting, pain, vaginitis, and weight gain. Furthermore studies have indicated that side effects commonly last longer than 6 months and in some women (estimated up to 25%) experience side effects that last longer than 5 years.

Apply to work with me here: https://go.oncehub.com/nataliebozinovski

Reference: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17879831/