BY SANDRA GUY

It’s no wonder women cringe at the word “endometriosis.”

The painful and incurable gynecological condition — it gets his name from the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus, the endometrium — affects more than 170 million women worldwide and can also cause bleeding, digestive issues, and fertility problems.

But a glimmer of hope comes from Oregon State University, where researchers say their work shows nanotechnology can both identify and kill the diseased tissue that causes the condition.

The breakthrough could offer a safer alternative than today’s surgical solutions and give new urgency to National Endometriosis Awareness Month each March.

The dilemma is that half of the women who undergo surgery to remove lesions that form in the ovaries, fallopian tubes or the outside of the uterus, must have more surgeries after the lesions grow back.

Women often require three or more surgeries to treat their symptoms, researchers say. That also involves potential complications and risks that healthy tissue may be harmed unintentionally.

Roughly 10 percent of childbearing-age women will experience endometriosis, and 35 percent to 50 percent of women with pelvic pain and or infertility suffer from the disorder.

The Oregon researchers, whose study was published in April 2020 in the journal Small, used nanoparticles to deliver a special dye to the endometriotic lesions.

This dye turns fluorescent once inside the cells, and when exposed to near-infrared light — which can penetrate human tissue — it heats to temperatures that kill them.

“The challenge has been to find the right type of nanoparticles,” researcher Oleh Taratula said in a news release. “Ones that can predominantly accumulate in endometriotic lesions without toxic effect on the body, while preserving their imaging and heating properties.”

The dye heats to temperatures that kill the diseased tissue.

The researchers will next work with human trials.