The symptoms of Jayne Harrison’s endometriosis crept up on her slowly. They started in her late thirties with a small niggling ache in her lower abdomen. By the time she was 40, the pain had almost crippled her.

“I thought at one point that I might have to get a wheelchair,” says Harrison, a health visitor from Framfield, in East Sussex. “There were times when I could barely move and couldn’t even bend over to do the gardening. I was taking paracetamol every two hours throughout the day, but that did not get rid of the pain.”

Endometriosis, a gynaecological problem affecting between 5 and 15 per cent of women, occurs when cells from the lining of the womb, the endometrium, migrate and grow in other parts of the body, often causing extreme pain, particularly around the time of menstruation. Conventional treatments, such as hormone tablets, tend to bring only short-term relief and can have side-effects such as a temporary menopause.

But now a new research study aims to prove that Chinese herbal medicine can help. People with endometriosis have long criticised doctors’ lack of awareness of the condition. It was diagnosed in Harrison in 1999, two years after she had first complained of pain. After an investigative operation she had laser treatment to burn off the areas of endometrial tissue in her abdomen that were proving troublesome, but the pain continued. The doctors recommended that she take hormone tablets, but she decided against them because they could cause weight gain and mood swings. The pain continued.

Then, five years ago, she found relief. Contacting her local complementary therapy clinic, she asked which treatments might help and she was assigned to Andrew Flower, a practitioner in traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture. “He was brilliant. He accepted that I did have an illness, that I had not imagined it and that it was as debilitating as I said it was,” says Harrison. “Within two weeks of taking the first batch of herbs I felt incredible relief. I could move without pain and do the gardening again. The feeling that my pelvis was solid and blocked disappeared.”

“For the first few months I saw Andrew every few weeks. He tried various mixtures of herbs, which I took in powder form with hot water once or twice a day. Recently I’ve been getting them already made up in liquid form, which makes it much easier. They have a distinctive smell, which I love, but my family find disgusting.”

Many women have reported anecdotally that herbal medicines help their endometriosis, and several trials have taken place in China, but until now there has been little rigorous scientific research. Flower is involved in the first clinical trial of Chinese herbs in the West using boiled herbs and conducted under rigorous Western protocols. These demand that neither patient nor doctor knows which patients are receiving the herbs and which have been given a placebo mix. “I looked at 55 Chinese papers in which herbs had been used to treat endometriosis and spoke to 11 practitioners in this country,” says Flower, who is conducting the trial under the auspices of the complementary medicine research unit at Southampton University.

“The Chinese have been using these treatments for hundreds of years and don’t feel they have to prove that they work, but their research is strongly suggestive that herbs can have an impact on endometriosis. Given that endometriosis is not well treated by Western medicine and that up to 44 per cent of women experience a return of their symptoms within a year of laser surgery, the treatment was worth investigating.”

Getting the study up and running was difficult. Hospital ethics committees, used to approving trials of standardised Western treatments in the form of tablets or capsules, were stretched by traditional Chinese medicine, where each patient is given a different combination of herbs during treatment. “Diagnosis is made on the basis of symptoms,” says Flower, “by taking a medical history and by looking at the pulse and tongue. You tailor the formula to the patient’s individual characteristics, which become clearer as treatment progresses.”

The study – possibly the first randomised controlled trial to use individually tailored herbal decoctions – has been approved by the local ethics committee and the Medicines and Healthcare Regulation Agency (MHRA), which were eventually convinced that using different herbal combinations for different patients was not a problem as long as the placebo was consistent. Finding a placebo that was foul-tasting like Chinese herbs but had no effect on the body was also a problem.

Now recruitment for the trial has begun; 20 patients will be given active herbs and 20 will receive a placebo from a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine for four months. At the end of the trial the two groups will be compared. Flower says he will be surprised if the patients who have been given the personalised decoction do not show a marked improvement.

“We are not talking about a magic cure, but I expect to see significant changes in my patients after three to four months,” he says. “Even those with severe symptoms see some benefit. Their menstrual cycles become regular, they feel less pain, energy levels are improved and they generally come back to life.” That’s been Harrison’s experience. “For the past five years I have sometimes gone up to a year without seeing Andrew,” she says. “The last bout I had was really painful, but I have got more herbs and I am feeling well again. My problem is that I take less than I am supposed to because of the cost of treatment. The last batch cost £225 for a four to six-week supply, but I have eked them out for much longer than that. I have no idea how much I have spent altogether, but it has been worth it.” One-hour sessions with Flower cost £40.

Even if the trial is successful and the results are published in a reputable medical journal, gynaecologists may hesitate to refer patients to a herbal practitioner. But Bruce Ramsay, a consultant gynaecologist at Peterborough district hospital, has been converted. “Herbs are not going to unblock tubes or get rid of a solid cyst, but I have seen them bring symptomatic relief,” he says. “However, I would recommend that endometriosis patients give herbs a go for three months. If they do not work within that time, they should not go on and on; it’s not worth the money.”

If you live close to South London or Hove, and have endometriosis diagnosed and would like to take part in the trial (with free treatment), contact Andrew Flower on 02380 241073 or e-mail flower.power@which.net

What is endometriosis?

Endometriosis can cause severe pelvic pain from the age of 20 to the menopause and can result in infertility.

It occurs when the cells that normally line the womb apparently spontaneously grow elsewhere, in the bowel and pelvis, for example.

During menstruation, the rogue clusters of endometrial cells also inflame and bleed, causing intense abdominal pain. The cause is unknown.

For more information contact the charity Endometriosis UK on 0808 8082227 or visit the website endometriosis-uk.org

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