EP.376/ Study Spotlight: Can curcumin or turmeric reduce endometriosis pain?

Podcast

23 Jan

Today we’re kicking off our return to the show after Christmas with our Study Spotlight Series on the study: Dietary Modification and Supplement Use For Endometriosis Pain.(1)

And today, we’re looking at the effects of curcumin and turmeric supplementation.

So this study, which remember was a study of 2388 endo patients, found that out of those who tried turmeric, about 25% reported an improvement in pain, and the same was true for curcumin.

Now, if you’re not clear why I have lumped these two together, it’s because curcumin is the active anti-inflammatory compound that makes turmeric so good for us, and most studies, are performed on curcumin itself as a result.

We’ve gone over the limitations of this study before, but just to recap - we don’t know what doses these participants were taking, how long, the formulations, how consistently and so on. So those who did feel better, may have been taken higher doses, better formulations, for a longer duration and so on. However, their improvements could have also been down to the placebo effect, because curcumin has a pretty good name for itself in the endo community, and therefore, that can influence people’s responses to it. We’re also relying on participants to accurately remember their experience of taking curcumin or turmeric, as this was a surgery study.

So, are there any other studies performed on humans that can give us an idea of curcumin’s efficacy?

One of the most recent studies published in Sept 2025, was a triple blind, randomised controlled trial (meaning neither the researchers nor the participants knew who was taking curcumin and who was taking a placebo) and looked at the effects of curcumin on people with stage 3 and 4 endometriosis who were undergoing assisted reproductive technology.(2)

The study was conducted on 50 participants, with 25 in the curcumin group, and 25 in the control group, who received a placebo. The curcumin group received 120mg of nanomicelle curcumin, twice a day, for 10 weeks.

After the 10 weeks, oxidative stress, which is central to endo development and plays a role in triggering the inflammatory cascade that causes our symptoms, had reduced and antioxidant markers, which defend against oxidative stress and have been shown to be low in endo patients, had increased. Inflammatory markers including pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-8 and TNF-a, which are both heavily involved in endo development, had significantly reduced, whilst ART outcomes improved.

Now, this study didn’t look at pain, which is pretty frustrating, but another 2025 study did.

This study, from June 2025, was a randomised double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, so another good quality study, which compared the effects of adding curcumin to the hormonal treatment dienogest, to dienogest alone.(3)

The study looked at 86 stage 2-3 endo participants who suffered with moderate to severe pain. The participants either received dienogest plus a placebo, or dienogest and 80mg of nanocurcumin a day, for 8 weeks.

After the trial, the curcumin group reported significantly higher improvements in period pain, chronic pelvic pain, lower back pain, sciaticia, pain with sex, pain with bowel movements, sexual function and quality of life in contrast to the dienogest group.

Of course, a limitation of this study is that it would have been great to have also compared the same dose and formulation of curcumin alone, without the dienogest.

Now in contrast, a 2023 triple-blind randomised controlled trial looked at the effects of curcumin vs placebo on pain and quality of life in 60 endo patients. Participants in the curcumin group were given 500mg curcumin, twice a day, for eight weeks.(4)

But the researchers found no statistical difference in pain and quality of life between the groups.

However, what I noticed here is that this study used regular curcumin, whereas the previous two studies used nanocurcumin, which is a reduced particle size to improve absorption, as curcumin has poor bioavailability. The first study we looked at actually went a step further and used nanomicelle curcumin, which is tiny particles of curcumin delivered in a water-soluble shell, which further aids absorption.

So, unfortunately, whilst this was another good quality study, we’re not seeing the effects of easy to absorb curcumin on pain and quality of life here, so the lack of improvements could have been to do with this.

As far as I am aware, these are the main studies on curcumin for endometriosis in humans, but I did want to note that a 2014 randomised controlled trial found 1200mg of curcumin per day for one month was as effective as ibuprofen for pain relief.(5) Now, this study was conducted on participants with knee pain, but as I know many of you use ibuprofen for your endo pain (in combination with other pain meds), I wanted to share this study.

So, so far, these are promising human trials showing that curcumin could help with pain levels, or at least, with inflammation and oxidative stress in endo patients. But we can see some limitations - I would like to see similar high quality studies performed on curcumin alone with an easy-to-absorb formulation, especially as we quite conflicting evidence on the studies that we do have.

Now, there are quite a significant number of other studies performed on animals, or on cultured human or animal cells, which aren’t looking at pain, but are looking at the processes behind endo growth and symptoms, and how curcumin could help there.

A 2020 review analysed the research on curcumin and endometriosis(6), and because there are so many studies, I won’t go into all of them, but I will give you the top lines, and the review is in my show notes if you want to have a look.

Endometriosis studies on mice, rats and human and animal cells have shown that curcumin can reduce inflammation by inhibiting the NF-κB pathway, and as a result lowering the production of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1, IL-6 and IL-8, and also reduces the activity of the COX-2 enzyme, lowering prostaglandin E2 production.(6)

All of these are involved in the inflammatory process of endo which leads to endo cell growth and survival.

And in terms of oxidative stress, which essentially turns on these inflammatory pathways, we’ve already explored some human trials showing a reduction in oxidative stress, but studies on mice also found that curcumin reduced oxidative processes and reactive oxygen species, which are what cause oxidative stress.(6)

And whilst we don’t have a huge number of curcumin studies on oxidative stress for endo specifically, we do have a large body of research showing curcumin’s positive effects on oxidative stress in general, and I’ve linked to a 2015 meta-analysis if you’d like to have a read of that.(7)

In mice with endometriosis, curcumin has also been shown in number of studies to reduce factors that influence endo survival and adhesion, such as MMPs (matrix metalloproteinases).(6)

And lastly, several studies have shown that curcumin promotes endo cell death and inhibits growth.(6)

So, to wrap up, I think there’s a lot of promise with curcumin, and actually, I was surprised that the percentage of those who had reported improvements wasn’t higher, because to this day, I haven’t seen any supplement improve pain as quickly and as effectively as curcumin, especially when combined with ginger.

Now, curcumin can slow down the COMT enzyme, which can then slow down clearance of oestrogen, but this isn’t a problem in those with a normal functioning COMT enzyme and is only of real concern in those with a slow COMT enzyme, which we can test for and I do with my clients. But even so, not everyone with a slow functioning COMT actually have poor oestrogen clearance, and we can check that with a DUTCH test.

But, if you don’t have the budget to do testing, Dr Drummond’s recommendation is simply to watch for symptoms. If you notice a worsening of oestrogenic symptoms such as clotty periods or painful breasts and more PMS, or you notice mood changes (and I mention that because the COMT enzyme is responsible for clearing certain neurotransmitters), it’s probably not for you, or you need a lower dose.

But again, there’s a lot of fear mongering around curcumin and the COMT enzyme, and just because you have a slow functioning COMT enzyme, doesn’t mean you have to avoid curcumin entirely. It’s very individual.

Of course, if you need help figuring this out, you can always book in a one off session to assess your supplement regime, or if you want longer term support, I am offering, for January only, £500 off my 1:1 coaching programme, as well as the option of a twelve month payment, so feel free to email me on hello@thisendolife.com if you’d like to learn more about that.

But if you want to go ahead and try it on your own, then in terms of doses, in my training, we’re taught to use 500mg - 1000mg a day, taken typically in divided doses, but you may not need anywhere near that to experience results, but many companies will sell this dose in one or two capsules. Now, obviously, aim for a formulation that has good bioavailability, you may not be able to find nanocurcumin, but curcumin phytosome and liposomal curcumin are all good options. Personally, and I mean literally as in what I take and what I have found most effective for me, is the Solgar Full Spectrum Curcumin (not an ad!).

Of course, always speak with your doctor when starting a new supplement regime.

Okay, that’s it for this week! I’ll see you next Friday.

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