The Doctors: What Is Endometriosis?
A woman reached out to The Doctors because she has painful menstrual cycles and has been suffering from them since she was 12. The pain is a burning sensation and throbbing pain goes down her legs all the way down to her ankles. Dr. Jennifer Ashton said that Endometriosis is caused by the cells in the inner lining of the uterus that is normally shed during a period traveling back up the Fallopian tube and implanting themselves on the Fallopian tubes, bowel, intestines, and the ovaries.
This means that there are hormonally responsive tissue that can contract with the normal hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle, causing a lot of pain. There’s no blood test for Endometriosis or a way to diagnosis through sonogram or ultrasound. Normally, it’s a diagnosis they make in the operating room.
The Doctors: Medical Animation
The Doctors explained to a patient what endometriosis is and how there is currently no accurate way of diagnosing it outside of the operating room. (Hasloo Group Production Studio / Shutterstock.com)
The Doctors welcomed Bruce Blausen, who is responsible for all of the medical animations that The Doctors uses. He said that he got started in medical animation when he was in college doing a watercolor painting of a cow pasture and a friend told him he was going into medical illustration. Bruce Blausen was planning to be an architect at first, but when he heard about this, he thought it was cool. Now, he has a Masters degree in Medical Illustration and has his own medical illustration animation studio.
The Doctors: Bruce Blausen Medical Illustrations
He showed a few medical animations to demonstrate the kind of animations he makes, which illustrated Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and the flow of blood through the heart. Bruce Blausen has 1,600 animations of common medical treatments and conditions on his website blausen.com, which are free to the world and are in 21 different languages.
These animations are great, he said, because if you explain to someone how the blood moves through the heart – all those valves and chambers and atria – it’s hard to understand what you’re talking about. But his illustrations showed what was happening in a brilliant and clear way. Check it out below:
Leave a Reply