Healing Endometriosis Naturally With an Anti-Inflammatory Approach (Episode 545)

Full Transcript: Episode 545

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: This is the Fertility Friday Podcast, episode number 545. In today’s episode, we take a deep dive into endometriosis with Katie Edmonds, endometriosis author, educator, and nutritional therapist. She wrote Heal Endo, an anti-inflammatory approach to healing from endometriosis, and the Four-Week Endometriosis Diet Plan. She lives on the North Shore of Kauai next to the biggest mahogany forest in the United States — fun fact — with her loving husband and two miracle kiddos. She is absolutely passionate about helping women with endometriosis. You can’t cure endometriosis, but she believes with the correct approach, the body can heal in incredible ways. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and jump into today’s episode with Katie.

I’m so excited to be here today with Katie Edmonds, author of Heal Endo. Welcome to the podcast.

Katie: Thanks, I’m so excited to be here. I was just telling you, I’ve been a fan of yours for such a long time, so it’s fun to just chat on a podcast.

Lisa: Yeah, for sure. And I was telling you that I was looking for a solid resource to recommend for endo. There’s a lot of different books out there and a lot of different approaches. I was looking for a resource that acknowledges the medical aspects of treatment but really gives a roadmap for women to be able to apply as much of the natural approach first. Because a lot of my clients — the first thing they want to do isn’t necessarily surgery. Before we get into the technical things, I’d love to hear your story. Why did you write this book? Was this something that affected you personally?

Katie: Yes. I had endometriosis really terribly for a long time. I was lucky to be diagnosed early. I had pain that came on really fast and hard, actually during sex. I was 23 and I thought my uterus had exploded. My doctors took the pain seriously — which is not every woman’s journey — and they said it sounds like endometriosis. And I was like, absolutely not. I looked it up, and the tagline was there’s no cure. I found old WordPress blogs chronicling women’s lives of absolute despair. And then I got diagnosed. I was devastated because I was told there’s no cure, nothing you can do, just manage symptoms. My symptoms were so life-altering and came on so quickly. I was a very fit, athletic young woman, and all of a sudden I couldn’t run, I couldn’t do anything that jolted my body. I had two surgeries and could never afford a professional excision surgery. I live in Hawaii and the nearest specialist was on the mainland — $50,000 — plus flights and hotel. I felt stuck. My husband and I wanted to start a family and I wasn’t getting pregnant. And it was almost the anger at that situation that led me to research it correctly.

I realized that I had been looking at it all wrong. Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease, not a liver issue or an estrogen issue. Once I understood that it behaves more like an autoimmune condition or cancer — that people treat those things and put them into remission — everything shifted. I started re-regulating my immune system in every possible way: reversing nutrient deficiencies rather than axing foods, walking and physical therapy rather than intense HIIT classes. And slowly my endometriosis went into remission. I didn’t know that was possible. My symptoms were completely gone. I got pregnant after three years of unexplained infertility. I now have two kids, conceived naturally. At 39, I’m healthier than I was 10, 15, 20 years ago. When I started asking whether this worked for other people, the research said a resounding yes. There are so many women who go on to reclaim their lives. The research shows stopping the inflammation and stopping the progression of endo is possible. That integrative approach — including surgery and pharmaceuticals when needed, plus Eastern medicine, diet, and lifestyle — is what the book is about.

Lisa: Thank you for taking us through that. What you described is terrifying. And I think anyone who tuned in because of the word endometriosis in the title has probably had that moment of — no, no, no, that can’t be what I have.

Katie: I speak to people to this day who don’t want a diagnosis because they think there’s nothing you can do. But it is absolutely treatable. The goal is to flip the script — it’s not terrifying to get diagnosed, it’s something you want, so you can treat it early and limit the damage.

Lisa: There’s research showing it takes 8 to 12 years on average to get a diagnosis. Could you share a bit about the variety of pain presentations?

Katie: My endometriosis would be different from everyone else’s because there are so many different types. Mine was pain with deep penetration at certain times of the month. I also had diffuse pain throughout my pelvis almost all the time — caused mostly by inflammation, not the lesions themselves, though I blamed the lesions at the time. I had ovulation pain and acute pain in the cul-de-sac area, the pouch of Douglas, between the rectum and the uterus. Interestingly, I had zero pain with my periods. And I just started my period half an hour ago — zero pain. That’s one of the reasons there’s such a delay in diagnosis, because so many practitioners know endo as period pain. But you can have endo with just ovulatory pain, or pain two days before your period, or digestive pain that gets misdiagnosed as IBS. The variety of presentation is a huge part of the problem.

Lisa: For someone newer to this — could you describe what endometriosis actually is?

Katie: There’s also silent endometriosis — women with zero symptoms. And then there’s a range from mild symptoms to severely debilitating ones. Let me walk through the stages. Developing endometriosis starts with the creation of an endometrial-like cell. These cells are similar to endometrial cells but genetically and epigenetically altered. Because there are 65 types and counting, the type depends partly on what kind of cell it is — how sensitive is it to estrogen, is it progesterone resistant, how aggressive is it? These cells can be present inside or outside the uterus — either placed there through fetal development or arriving via retrograde menstruation. The fascinating thing is that having an endometrial-like cell does not mean you’ll develop an endometriosis lesion. Research showed that about 10% of fetuses were born with an endo-like cell in the cul-de-sac, but only 4% developed endometriosis there. What causes the lesion to develop is immune dysfunction. The immune system is supposed to eliminate these mutated cells, but instead it allows them to establish blood supply and nerve supply. Once that happens, you have an active endometriosis lesion.

The research in humans — not animal models — shows that on average, about 30% of endometriosis cases progress, 30% stabilize, and 40% regress. You’re more likely to stabilize or regress than to progress. Our goal should be to stop all the processes inside the body that are fueling that progression — addressing bacteria, sex hormones, stress hormones, sleep, nutrient deficiencies, and movement. All of these go into whether we’re going to progress the endo or stop it.

Lisa: So much of what you said is different from the mainstream narrative. I think the framing of endo as a verb rather than a noun is powerful because it reflects that this is a process — not a static thing you just have.

Katie: Exactly. And because it’s a process that interacts with every body system — circulatory, lymphatic, muscular, digestive, urinary — it becomes almost another bodily system once it’s established. A full-body disease. That’s also why we have so much control over quite a bit of it.

Lisa: You mentioned retrograde menstruation. Do you think there’s more to the origin story?

Katie: Retrograde menstruation has been weaponized by some doctors — used as an excuse to recommend removing the uterus or stopping periods. That’s where the controversy comes from. But the real research is cool. You can have endo-like cells placed during fetal development — cases of endometriosis have been found in men, and in women born without uteruses. Inflammation and chemical exposure can epigenetically alter otherwise normal endometrial cells. A bacterial infection or pelvic inflammatory disease can activate cells that were previously dormant. It’s multifactorial. We should never cancel the research — we should stop doctors from misusing it.

Lisa: Let’s talk about what women with active symptoms can actually do.

Katie: I start with nutrition, because it touches so many bodily systems at once. Women with endometriosis are found to be incredibly deficient in a wide variety of vitamins and minerals — the exact nutrients essential for reproduction, for quieting period pain, for nervous system regulation. So if you’re trying to do those things without the ingredients, it won’t work. The Heal Endo approach is antioxidant-rich and nutrient-dense — it focuses on inclusion before exclusion. When you’re including that many quality foods, you naturally crowd out the nutrient-poor, blood sugar-spiking foods without needing a rigid elimination protocol. Once diet is dialed in, adding movement thoughtfully. And the nervous system piece is enormous. For women who are stuck spinning their wheels — you get one thing under control and two months later it’s back — that’s often nervous system dysfunction. Retraining the brain is not about talk therapy, it’s about teaching the brain to find generosity, joy, and neutrality without being flooded by threat responses. That can open the door to everything else finally working.

I also recommend the low-hanging fruit list in the last chapter of my book — start with the bare minimum if you’re overwhelmed. Small, sustainable changes. Not changing your entire life in a day.

Lisa: I’ve heard from women over the years about movement — some find exercise relieves pain, others flare badly. What’s your take?

Katie: Research shows movement may reduce endometriosis pain more than painkillers. But the key is what kind of movement. There’s a huge difference between walking and a HIIT class when you have core dysfunction. When we have pelvic floor dysfunction and really poor core strength, high-impact exercise and heavy lifting can increase intra-abdominal pressure and compound the problem. I recommend two simple self-tests in my book. First: take a deep breath and notice where it goes. It should go into your ribs — your intercostal muscles — not your belly. If your belly is moving, that’s a dysfunctional breathing pattern on the inhale. Second: exhale forcefully — pretend you’re blowing petals off a flower — and put your hand on your tummy. If your tummy braces inward, great. If it bulges outward, your diaphragm is pushing down on your organs, including your uterus, ovaries, and lesions. That’s a lot of pressure compounding over time. So walking and swimming are excellent low-pressure alternatives. And hypopressive training — I recommend Dr. Angie Mueller at corerecoverymethod.com — retrains the core in a way similar to neuroplasticity. It takes practice but it sticks.

Lisa: You’ve done so much specialized work here. What are your top takeaways for listeners?

Katie: Learn about the disease — how it actually behaves — and take control of that information. We’ve exported so much reliance to doctors and social media influencers with strong opinions. But your endometriosis is your body. Once you understand the disease, you can build your own treatment plan. Don’t follow accounts that tell you there’s no hope. Spend your energy on making your body more resilient. And find me at healendo.com — the blog is free. The book is $25 or $10 for the ebook. I try to be as upbeat as possible because we have enough in our lives. I don’t want to be part of the doom and gloom.

Lisa: This is an episode to earmark and listen to a few times. There were so many nuggets. I can’t recommend Heal Endo enough. Thank you so much for being here.

Katie: A pleasure. Thank you.

Lisa: Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with a friend. You’ll find the show notes page at fertilityfriday.com/545. Until next time — be well and happy charting.