The Spiritual Meaning of Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a condition in which tissue similar to endometrial tissue grows outside of the uterus instead of inside it. The major symptom of endometriosis is intense, debilitating pain around one’s period, but many people also experience heavy menses and digestive issues. It’s only truly diagnosable through surgery, and it can take an average of 10 years to get a diagnosis.

Endometriosis is relatively common and non-life threatening, but it causes inflammation in the pelvic region that can be very painful and can cause scarring that may lead to infertility. There is no known cure, though some doctors offer hormonal therapy and surgery to remove the excess tissue.

After exploring what the Western medical model has (or doesn’t have) to offer, what might endometriosis be trying to tell us from a spiritual perspective? What if we could listen to its messages and help manage our symptoms better or improve our general wellness through that knowledge? What is the spiritual meaning of endometriosis?

A Lack of Support

Endometriosis is the condition of endometrial tissue (or something like it) forming outside of the uterus. This tissue is intended to support the formation of a fetus—it is the nutritive, soft bed for a fertilized egg to nestle into and grow into a baby. This lining is shed monthly when an egg is not fertilized and then regrows. Energetically, the endometrial lining is mother tissue; the tissue of nourishment, safety, and support.

Regardless of whether or not you want to bear children, let’s consider the following questions:

• Do you feel supported right now?

• Do you have a physically and emotionally safe home?

• Do you have any trauma or issues around your own gestation, birth, or early childhood? Were you supported, loved, and cared for enough during these times?

• What is your relationship like with your birth mother? Is (or was) it anything other than safe, supportive, and nurturing?

• Do you “mother” your own body well through proper nutrition, enough sleep, the sort of things a good mother would make sure your body has?

If these questions resonate, you may need to find a way to build more support into your life. This could include counseling, asking for help more often, and attending to the practices and habits that help you feel safe and supported. Nourishing food and regular sleep are basic elements of this. You can also ask for support from a higher power, which could look like a spirit guide, ancestor, goddess, or archetype of an ideal mother who you can pray to and who can help you move through the stress of your life.

First and Second Chakra Imbalances

Endometriosis is usually located in the pelvic area, though the endometrial lining can sometimes grow in other places as well. The uterus itself is connected to the second chakra, which is the energy center associated with sexuality, desire, passion, and inner knowing. When there are issues with this energy center, we can feel exhausted, listless, or depressed, lacking the energy to focus on desire, play, connection, or sexuality.

Ideally, our chakras are aligned and balanced with one another. All of these energy centers are important, and sometimes when one chakra is deficient or overworking, it can affect the energy centers nearby. Because endometriosis can move around the pelvic area, it can affect the bowels and pelvic floor, which are more related to the first chakra, the energy center associated with feelings of safety, connection, nourishment, and home. If this chakra is blocked, other chakras will generally be affected, too.

Let’s consider these questions:

• Do you feel connected to playfulness, joy, creativity, and sexuality?

• Do you have a healthy, stable home life?

• Are you connected to your roots—your family, your culture, your spirituality?

If these questions resonate, start by attending to the question of your own safety. Make your home environment as safe and comfortable as you can. If you travel a lot, see if you can stay home for a while and get some rest. Address any problem areas in your life around stability or family (which may mean focusing on chosen family rather than biological family).

Once those first chakra factors are in place, address the second chakra: Invite more pleasure and play into your life. Move your body, especially through dance. Open your hips in yoga class. Make art in your favorite way or take it in through art galleries, music, dance parties, and whatever else you enjoy.

Excess Energy in the Body

Another way of viewing endometriosis is that it is a physical manifestation of energy that does not leave the body when it should. Rather than releasing through menstruation, that energy stays in the body, inflaming the tissues without a direct route out and downward. This may be especially important to consider if endometriosis affects your bowel movements, which is another way the body releases energy.

• Do you take on other people’s emotions by worrying about them, feeling what they are feeling, or getting overwhelmed when you are around too many people?

• Do you tend to support others more than they support you?

• Do you hold onto emotions, especially if there’s no one in your life to talk to about them?

• Do you cleanse or clear your energy regularly through meditation, ritual bathing, nature walks, or other spiritual practices?

• Does your body regularly clear itself through digestion or do you struggle with constipation, diarrhea, or both?

• Do you overeat, drink, smoke, or use other substances that may be contributing to the buildup of energetic toxins in your body?

If these questions resonate, you may need to find better ways to clear excess energy. Increase your fiber and water intake to make it easier to digest food and address any attending gut problems with your health practitioner. Make sure you are moving regularly in ways that you enjoy—don’t force yourself to do exercise you dislike, but something as simple as dance, walking, or swimming will help you release excess stress from your body. Do a simple clearing meditation in the morning and the evening to help let go of other people’s energy and come back to yourself. (Try this guided mediation for cleansing toxic energy and this full moon meditation for clearing and letting go.)

Overeating, drinking, smoking, and substance abuse are all ways of trying to help the body calm and regulate itself. However, these habits can create other issues, especially in terms of hormonal balance in the body. Work on finding ways to regulate your nervous system that don’t cause hormonal disturbances. Counseling, neurofeedback, movement, and even certain herbs or medicines can help calm the nervous system.

Intergenerational Pain and Trauma

Your reproductive system is connected to your family history, especially your birth mother and her birth mother. (This may be especially true if you tend to have tight hips as well.) Sometimes stress, pain, and fear are passed down from one generation to the next.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What is my relationship like with my mother?

• What is my relationship like with my maternal grandmother?

• What do I know about my birth and my mother’s pregnancy with me?

• What about my mother’s birth and my grandmother’s pregnancy with her?

• What was happening in the world and in my family when I was born?

• What was happening in the world and in the family when my mother was born?

If you notice a lot of disturbances and stress on your family during these times, you may be dealing with intergenerational pain and trauma. If this is the case, it’s helpful to look at what habits and patterns you learned from your mother and her mother, and you might want to choose to change these things in your life.

It may be helpful to talk to your doctor, naturopath, or Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner to see what medicines and lifestyle changes could help you manage endometriosis. We may not be able to fix or cure a chronic condition like this, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it and hopefully feel a little (or a lot) better. In any case, if you can pay attention to what your body is trying to tell you, you may be able to work with your body to address your symptoms, manage your pain, and befriend your body, even when it hurts.

What is the spiritual meaning of menstrual problems as a whole? Learn more.