The Effect of Dietary Interventions, or no Intervention, on Pain and Quality of Life in Women Diagnosed With Endometriosis

The Low FODMAP diet is an avoidance diet and consist of three phases. In the first phase, all nutrients high in FODMAPs (high-FODMAPS) are eliminated from the daily diet over a period of 2 to 6 weeks to calm down the bowel. The second phase consists of the addition of FODMAP challenges. During this phase the patient continues the Low FODMAP diet, but will reintroduce one high-FODMAP nutrient once every three days to see whether exposure to this high-FODMAP causes IBS symptoms. When this is not the case, the patient can continue eating this high-FODMAP group in their daily diet. In the third and final phase, the diet is fully personalized. This personalization is based on whether the patient tolerated the high-FODMAP nutrient or not during the FODMAP challenges. Only when the high-FODMAP nutrient is not tolerated, it is advised to permanently remove it from the daily diet.

The endometriosis diet The endometriosis diet is a patient experience based, avoidance diet developed by women diagnosed with endometriosis. Therefore no specific recommendations exist regarding the application of the endometriosis diet. With the endometriosis diet, women avoid nutrients they noticed provoked or aggravated their endometriosis-related symptoms such as red meat, coffee, sugar, lactose and soy.