Hope for millions with endometriosis as experts find antibiotics could ‘CURE’ painful condition

MILLIONS of endometriosis sufferers may soon see their agony come to an end, thanks to scientists who claim to have found a potential cure.

Experts at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis say that they've found an antibiotic which can reduce the size of lesions caused by the condition.

So far, they've only tested it out on mice but it's hoped that human trials will result in similar findings.

They're now planning a large clinical trial to test out metronidazole in women who have endometriosis.

Scientists found that mice who were fed the antibiotic saw the size of endometriosis-related lesions in the gut reduce in size.

'Exciting' discovery

And that was true whether they received the treatment before the lesions formed or after the endometriosis was well-established.

That may mean that there's a potential cure or way of reversing the condition regardless of how long someone's had it.

Experts also found that bacteria in the gut microbiome may help drive, or prevent, progression of the disease.

Cost-effective treatment

"Our initial goal was to understand how these gut bacteria, or microbiota, might be connected to endometriosis, but in the process, we may have found a cost-effective treatment," said principal investigator Dr Ramakrishna Kommagani.

Up to one in ten women has the chronic condition, and although having it might not necessarily up your risk of womb cancer or cervical cancer, the new findings do suggest that ovarian cancer might be more of a risk.

They can wait up to seven years to receive a diagnosis for the condition that can leave sufferers infertile.

This is a silent epidemic in that often women think they are just having cramping during their menstrual cycles

Dr Ramakrishna Kommagani

Women are often misdiagnosed with IBS, cystitis, PCOS, fibromyalgia, appendicitis or food intolerances before they're eventually told about endometriosis.

Women who have inflammatory bowel disease are more likely to develop endometriosis but this new study has found that some of the gut microbes linked to bowel problems also play a massive role in endometriosis.

When mice were treated with the antibiotic metronidazole, the lesions became smaller and inflammation was reduced.

Other antibiotics, however, didn't do anything to reduce inflammation or shrink lesions.

Gut bacteria linked to endometriosis

And the team also found that a good type of gut bacteria was really low in mice with endometriosis, so they concluded that as well as taking the antibiotic, women may be advised to take a probiotic to boost their levels.

"This study is exciting as it opens new frontiers in identifying bacterial candidates that can promote endometriosis in reproductive-age women, and it enables us to conduct future studies aimed at developing simpler ways to diagnose endometriosis," said co-author Dr Indira Mysorekar.

"How healthy your gut is affects your disease burden," Dr Kommagani said.

"What you eat can affect the bacteria in the gut, and that can promote endometriosis, so it's important to have healthy habits and to make sure you are harbouring good bacteria so you won't get the disease and the pain associated with it.

"This is a silent epidemic in that often women think they are just having cramping during their menstrual cycles," he added.

"It's only when the pain reaches a point where they can't handle it -- and it's not contained within the cycle - that many realise something else is going on."

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours