Cancers of the lining of the uterus and of the uterine wall basically cause abnormal bleeding. In women   before menopause, this usually is irregular bleeding, but occasionally can cause just heavy periods alone. More than 80% of cases of endometrial cancers occur in older women and postmenopausal bleeding is the most common symptom. Very occasionally a watery discharge can be a symptom and in advanced cases it can spread outside the pelvis to the lungs, liver and bone that can cause cough, jaundice and/or bone pain.

I had had an endometriosis hysterectomy when I was 29, but the endometriosis kept growing on the bowel. When I was 34 I had a piece of the bowel taken but it kept coming back. After four years, they decided to give me radiotherapy because they couldn’t stop it growing. It turned into an endometriotic cancer on the bowel. The radiotherapy burst the bowel. I woke from surgery with five drainage bags on my stomach . . . and now I have none.
Alice
When a woman has irregular bleeding then usually a doctor will examine the cervix to see if it looks normal, do a Pap smear and sample the lining of the womb – an ‘endometrial biopsy’. This is usually done in the gynecologist’s office without anesthetic, but if the woman has never had a baby, then occasionally an anesthetic is required, as the cervix can be very tight.
If the endometrial biopsy fails to show any cancer and the bleeding persists, or if no tissue is obtained, then usually a transvaginal ultrasound is undertaken, where the ultrasound probe is   inserted into the vagina. This will show any abnormal areas within the lining of the womb, and in particular in the postmenopausal woman. It will show if the lining of the womb has abnormal thickening (> 5 mm thick). If the lining of the womb has thickened, then a closer examination of the lining of the womb is undertaken. This will be done either under general or local anesthetic by passing a 3-5 mm camera tube through the cervix (a ‘hysteroscope’) and a sample taken to exclude cancer.
For uterine muscle tumours, however, particularly those arising in fibroids, it is often difficult to get a sample. If fibroids are seen particularly in a postmenopausal woman, then a hysterectomy is usually recommended to exclude a malignant tumour (‘sarcoma’).
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1.    Know your triggers. Become aware of when you crave certain foods. If you know that certain situations make you feel the need for certain foods, either avoid the situations if possible or else prepare yourself by taking something else to eat that may satisfy that need.

2.    Are your emotions a trigger? Are you eating differently when you feel sad, lonely or bored? Look at what else you could substitute instead of food. Perhaps do some voluntary work to shift the emphasis away from yourself. This can help with any feelings of self-pity. Find a new hobby or join an evening class – learn to scuba dive! Bring some excitement into your life.

3.    Habit eating. It is very easy to get into habits such as eating while driving or eating while watching TV. These can become so ingrained that you can end up always eating while watching TV. Have a look at what has become automatic. A patient came to see me who had got into the habit of coming home from work and automatically going to the fridge. This action had almost become unconscious. Awareness of what you are doing and when is the key. Stop, think and ask yourself, ‘Do I really need to eat this now? Will I be happy with the way I feel after I have eaten it?’

4.    Exercise. Exercise releases chemicals called endorphins that make us feel good. Going for a brisk walk or a swim when you feel cravings can even ward off the urge to binge.

5.    Go for complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates, starchy foods such as rice, potatoes, millet, wheat, rye, oats and barley, keep the blood sugar in balance so that your body automatically stops craving a ‘quick fix’. Because complex carbohydrates burn slowly, they help us to feel satisfied with less food and also give us a good level of energy. It’s the difference between burning coal and newspaper on a fire. The complex carbohydrates are the coal. They slowly build up heat and keep up a good level of warmth over a long period of time. The newspaper, however, gives a quick burst of heat and then you have to fuel the fire again. You will amazed that you can eat filling and satisfying food, feel good and still lose weight.

6.     Distract yourself. What if you wait for the craving to subside? Yes, they do go, even if you don’t satisfy them. Do something else, read or make a phone call and see what you feel like after that.

7.    Eat little and often. Do not go more than three hours without food. Your blood sugar level will drop and then your body will automatically crave something sweet as a ‘quick fix’. If you leave a large gap between meals, you can actually end up eating far more. Long gaps increase the chemical neuropeptide Y in the brain which actually increases your hunger. Long gaps between meals can also put your body into the famine mode and slow your metabolism down so you can end up putting on more weight. This is why constant dieting makes you fat.

8.    Don’t deny yourself. If you say to yourself you are never going to eat chocolate again, you will almost certainly fail. Be realistic. We are all going to have foods that we are really better off without. If the main foundation of your nutrition is good, relax, go away on holiday and enjoy yourself. If you are out with a friend for a treat, don’t feel excluded if you fancy an ice-cream with them. Buy the best quality you can get of that ice-cream and really become aware of the taste when you eat it. If you keep denying yourself, the craving can just explode so that you end up eating far more than before. It becomes an obsession. If you eat little and often, with good amounts of complex carbohydrates, you will find the cravings will go automatically, without your having to use much willpower.
Jane came to see me knowing that during the week before each period she would sit and eat a box of chocolate every afternoon: she just couldn’t stop herself. I explained to her about the blood sugar swings and cravings and she agreed to eat little and often during her next cycle with more emphasis on complex carbohydrates. She said to me, ‘This isn’t going to work.’ I replied, ‘What have you got to lose by trying it,? Only the cravings.’ I saw her after her next period and she was just amazed. She was amazed not only that the cravings had gone, but the way they had gone. It wasn’t a case of willpower – ‘I will not eat chocolate’ – but that her body didn’t need the chocolate so it didn’t ask her for it. She had gone through the whole month without thinking about chocolate. She had even been out for dinner, was offered an after-dinner mint and felt she could just take it or leave it. And she left it.

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The Low-Cal Hamburger Plate. Say it’s a hamburger patty, a cup of cottage cheese, a canned peach half, and some melba toast. By applying our Conscious Combining knowledge to this appetizing delight, we can see that the canned peach half will ferment in your stomach, and the cottage cheese is loaded with salt and qualifies as cheese, thus holding up the digestion of everything else on the plate. The melba toast turns to alcohol (since it’s a grain and fermented grains become alcohol) because it gets stuck in your stomach and along with the peach it ferments.
The Fruit and Cottage Cheese Plate. The cottage cheese traps the fruit in your stomach and causes it to ferment. Instead of getting skinny, you get bloated.
Chef’s Salad (also applies to tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, and shrimp salad—all protein based salads). The problem with these “diet” salads is twofold: they’re filled with veggies that don’t get processed properly but instead sit in a lump in your stomach because of the accompanying protein, and the dressing is swamped with salt.
Picture the size of your stomach. It’s about the size of a small grapefruit. Yet we’re forcing all that bulk to get stuck there. No wonder your stomach complains!
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