Endometriosis and Psoriasis

What is Psoriasis:

Psoriasis is a non-contagious skin condition which can affect any part of the body including under your nails, but it’s most typically found on knees, elbows, scalp, or trunk of the body. It forms as raised scaly, dry patches on the skin appearing red, pink, purple, white, or silver. The plaques or scales vary in size and can affect multiple areas of the body at one time. Psoriasis affects approximately 2% of the population and can start at any age.

This is a long-lasting chronic condition that will unpredictably come and go throughout life. The exact cause of psoriasis is not fully understood, but it’s believed to be related to an overactive immune system prompting infection-fighting cells to attack healthy skin cells causing inflammation. The inflammatory processes accelerate the skins regeneration and multiplication up to ten times faster than normal, causing dead skin to accumulate, the skin to thicken and plagues to form. These patches can be sore, itchy, cracked or bleed.

Psoriasis Arthritis is a form of arthritis that causes inflamed, swollen, stiff and painful joints. It’s estimated 20-30% of individuals with arthritis will develop psoriasis arthritis.

What causes it?

While there is a genetic predisposition for psoriasis and it tends to run in families, environmental factors such as skin trauma, infection, or smoking can also trigger its onset. When it starts later in life, it’s less likely to be related to genes, and instead caused by obesity, smoking, hypertension, or diabetes.

How can you treat it?

There is no cure for psoriasis, but various treatment options exist to manage the symptoms. Topical treatments such as creams, ointments, and shampoos can be used to reduce inflammation and improve skin texture. In more severe cases, light therapy, or biologic drugs may be prescribed to target the underlying immune system dysfunction.

Lifestyle changes include managing stress, avoiding triggers such as certain medications or infections, plus maintaining a healthy diet and exercise routine may also help to improve psoriasis symptoms.

Endometriosis

Those with psoriasis and psoriasis arthritis are twice as likely to get endometriosis, whilst those with endometriosis have a greater subsequent risk of developing psoriasis arthritis.

How to Cope

Psoriasis can be very hard to deal with and put into remission (meaning you have no active lesions). It can be sore and tender or make you want to hide your skin when its really bad. What works for each person will vary and you may need to try different options at different times.

As someone who has struggled with psoriasis my whole life, here are what works for me the best:

Palmer's Cocoa Butter

Palmers Cocoa Butter is the only cream that works for me. All the pharmacy or skin-condition specific condition products don't work as well in comparison to this. This might not be suitable for everyone but if you haven't tried it, it might be worth giving it a go at under £5.

Shower Water Filter

This was a discovery I made recently after a friend cleared up her eczema after purchasing this water filter. Since I have installed this, I have been psoriasis-free for 3 months, which for me is a very long time. It was very easy to install, and you only need to change the water filter every 6 months. https://amzn.to/3WKQeEu

After writing this blog post, I put a poll on my instagram story to see how many of my followers had endometriosis and psoriasis. Here are the results:

61 people said yes - 87 people said no.

References:

Blackstone B, Patel RA, Bewley A. Assessing and Improving Psychological Well-Being in Psoriasis: Considerations for the Clinician. Psoriasis : Targets and Therapy. 2022;Volume 12:25-33. doi:10.2147/ptt.s328447

Ocampo D V, Gladman D. Psoriatic arthritis. F1000Res. 2019;8:F1000 Faculty Rev-1665. Published 2019 Sep 20. doi:10.12688/f1000research.19144.1

Harris HR, Korkes KMN, Li T, et al. Endometriosis, Psoriasis, and Psoriatic Arthritis: A Prospective Cohort Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2022;191(6):1050-1060. doi:10.1093/aje/kwac009