Endometriosis, Perimenopause, and Pain Relief: Why Women’s Pain Deserves Better Care
- James Tremblay
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
It’s not unusual for women to come to me with a long story behind their pain — not just in the body, but in the process of trying to get help. Some have been to multiple doctors. Some have felt dismissed. Others have worked with supportive providers, but still haven’t received clear answers or lasting relief — only treatment focused on managing symptoms.
A recent Smithsonian Magazine article titled “For Some Women With Serious Physical Ailments, Mental Illness Has Become a Scapegoat Diagnosis” explores how women’s pain, especially when it doesn’t show up clearly on scans or lab tests, is often attributed to stress, anxiety, or depression. The article centers on cases of endometriosis and autoimmune disease, but the underlying theme will resonate with many women: when symptoms don’t fit the expected pattern, it’s easy for them to be downplayed, misunderstood, or reframed as emotional.
Endometriosis and a Pattern of Dismissal
The article highlights the story of a woman with endometriosis whose symptoms — including intense abdominal pain, blood in her stool, and bladder issues — were repeatedly explained away as psychological. Despite the severity of her condition, she was told she was probably just stressed and eventually prescribed anti-anxiety medication. Only later was she diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of endometriosis that had been missed for years.
This story reflects a broader issue the article points out, "Over a third of endometriosis patients are misdiagnosed with mental health conditions, which helps delay the actual diagnosis by over four years on average in the United States."
In my practice, I’ve worked with women who describe a similar journey — not necessarily with endometriosis, but with persistent symptoms like pain, headaches and migraines, or fatigue that never received a clear explanation. By the time they show up, they’re exhausted. Sometimes it’s from feeling like their pain hasn’t been taken seriously. Other times, it’s just the ongoing effort of trying different treatments that don’t address the root of the issue.
Perimenopause and the Complexity of Midlife Symptoms
The article focuses heavily on endometriosis and autoimmune disease, but the same diagnostic challenges can apply to perimenopause, when hormonal shifts can cause wide-ranging physical and emotional changes. These may include:
Aches and pains
Night sweats and hot flashes
Brain fog, fatigue, or poor sleep
Mood changes
Menstrual fluctuations
These symptoms are real. They’re also often hard to measure, which means they can be easy to misattribute.
I’m not a hormone expert, and I don’t diagnose medical conditions. But I do work with women in this life stage regularly, and I’ve seen how much physical tension, structural imbalance, and nervous system overload can accumulate over time — especially when care has been focused on symptom management instead of broader support.
It’s Not Just Stress – But Stress Matters
The Smithsonian article critiques how quickly stress is used as an explanation when there’s no clear diagnosis. That pattern is real. But I’d add that stress is also one of the most underrated contributors to pain and discomfort — especially for women balancing careers, caregiving, health concerns, and the long-term emotional labor that often comes with all of it.
Stress doesn’t just vanish with a vacation (though it can help!), and for many women, even rest feels like another thing to manage. Life keeps going. Work, family, and obligations all stack up. The point isn’t to escape stress entirely, but to help the body adapt to it better. To give the system a break from the constant load, so pain and tension don’t keep building.
These are the patterns I often work with. Not because stress “explains away” someone’s pain, but because helping the nervous system downshift and the body let go of unnecessary effort can sometimes create more room for relief, responsiveness, and resilience.
The Direct Benefits of Manual Therapy for Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain
While stress management matters, hands-on work can also offer more direct support for the physical patterns that contribute to pain. Research suggests that therapeutic visceral massage can help reduce pelvic pain and muscle spasms associated with endometriosis, sometimes offering lasting relief for weeks after treatment.
In my own practice, I bring a gentle, respectful approach to working with abdominal and pelvic tissues when appropriate. I've taken continuing education classes focused on visceral and abdominal work, including Visceral Integration: Abdominopelvic Relationships with Bruce Schonfeld in Los Angeles.
While I don't specialize exclusively in visceral therapy, these classes have expanded the ways I can support clients dealing with deep-seated tension, post-surgical changes, or chronic patterns related to conditions like endometriosis.
The goal isn't aggressive manipulation, but to create space, increase circulation, calm the nervous system, and support the body's natural ability to adapt. Even small shifts can sometimes lead to meaningful improvements in comfort and movement.
What Rolfing and Massage Offers — and What It Doesn’t
I’m not offering a diagnosis, but Rolfing and therapeutic, informed touch can help alleviate issues resulting from perimenopause and endometriosis. I offer something that many women say has been missing: a way to work with the physical patterns that build up after months or years of strain, and a place where their experience is taken seriously, even if it doesn’t fit a textbook definition.
Rolfing® can help:
Unwind chronic tension that builds from long-term patterns
Support more natural, less effortful posture and breath
Give the nervous system a chance to settle, especially when it’s been in overdrive
Create space for movement and physical ease, even when the underlying cause of pain isn’t fully known
This work doesn’t replace medical care. In fact, it works best when it complements it, when it fills in some of the gaps left by systems that are often under-resourced or narrowly focused.
You Don’t Need a Label for Your Pain to Get Support
Not every woman I work with has been misdiagnosed or dismissed. But many come in with pain, fatigue, or discomfort that hasn’t been clearly explained, and that’s reason enough to start looking for support.
Rolfing may or may not solve the root cause of what’s happening, but it can offer a space to reset, to listen to what your body is saying, and to start shifting how you move through it.
James Tremblay is a Certified Rolfer® and Licensed Massage Therapist based in Farmington, Michigan, serving Farmington Hills, Novi, West Bloomfield, Southfield, Livonia, and beyond.
Comments