A simple guide from Breathe. 

Endometriosis is an inflammatory condition, and inflammation is now understood as one of the major drivers of fatigue. It draws continuously on the body's energy reserves, which is why the tiredness is deep and doesn't lift with rest.

If you live with endometriosis, you already know the part no one really prepares you for: the tiredness. Not the ordinary kind that a good night fixes: the deep, flat exhaustion that lingers no matter how much you rest. You have probably read plenty about what you have. What gets explained far less is what your body is actually crying out for underneath it all, and how you might give it to it.

 

Why the tiredness is real

Endometriosis affects around 1 in 7 Australian women, and health authorities describe it as an inflammatory condition. That word matters more than it first seems. For a long time, endometriosis was thought of mainly as lesions: tissue growing where it shouldn't. The understanding is shifting: a growing body of research now views it as a whole-body inflammatory condition, not just a pelvic one. And that helps explain the symptoms that reach far beyond the pelvis: the fatigue, the brain fog, the feeling of being worn down. Once you see the inflammation piece, the tiredness stops feeling like something you are imagining. Inflammation is demanding work for the body. When it is switched on for a long time, it draws on your reserves (your energy, your capacity to repair). Researchers now describe inflammation as one of the major drivers of fatigue: the kind of exhaustion that, tellingly, does not lift with rest. So the tiredness is not a weakness or a mindset problem. It is your body running low on something. The useful question is: low on what? and how do we top it back up?

 

What your body is actually asking for

Strip it right back and it comes down to three things: oxygen, cellular energy, and genuine recovery time. These are the raw ingredients your body uses to repair and steady itself. When inflammation is using them up faster than you can replace them, you feel it as exhaustion. This is exactly the layer that red light and oxygen therapy work on by giving the body more of what it already needs to do its own recovery. Here is how, as simply as we can put it:

• Start with the cell

  Everything your body does (healing, thinking, moving, recovering) runs on energy made inside tiny parts of your cells called mitochondria. Think of them as little power plants humming away inside almost every cell you have. To make energy well, those power plants need oxygen. When the body is under strain, they run less efficiently, and your energy drops. Lift what is happening in those cells, and you lift how you feel.

• What red light does, and how

Red light therapy looks like you are doing nothing. Underneath, it is super clever. Specific wavelengths of red and near-infrared light are absorbed by the mitochondria, giving their energy-making a nudge so they produce more efficiently. Research also shows red light can help calm the body's inflammatory signalling. 

In plain terms: it is a bit like recharging your batteries from the inside. You lie on a warm bed of light, and at the cellular level your power plants get a top-up, which is why people describe feeling restored rather than wired.

• What oxygen therapy does, and how

Mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy (mHBOT) sounds technical, but the idea is simple. Normally your blood carries oxygen on your red blood cells. Breathing oxygen inside a gently pressurised chamber lets extra oxygen dissolve straight into the fluid of your blood, so more of it can reach into your tissues, carrying the raw material your body uses to repair.

In plain terms: picture watering a garden. Normal breathing is a steady trickle. Oxygen under gentle pressure is the tap turned up, more reaching more places.

• Why we use the two together

This is the heart of what we do at Breathe. Red light helps prime the body and supports circulation. Oxygen therapy then floods the system with the fuel that recovery runs on. One opens the door; the other walks the resources through it and together, they support the body's recovery environment more completely than either alone.

What the science says

Supporting the body's oxygen, cellular energy and recovery is sound, and that inflammation is one of the most important threads in women's health today. 

What this means for you

If you live with endometriosis, the inflammation is real and so is the exhaustion that comes with it. You cannot think your way out of that, but you can give your body better conditions to recover: more oxygen, better cellular energy, real time to repair.

That is what these practices support. Not a fix, not a cure, but a calm, consistent place for your body to come back to itself, alongside your medical care.

Please include your GP and health specialist in your team of professionals who are caring for your condition (and have a chat about persistent fatigue, too, it is always worth checking). What we offer is the recovery layer that wraps around that.

And if you are weighing up whether this kind of support fits your situation, the best next step is a conversation. Come and talk to us, keep your doctor in the loop, and we will help you work out whether it belongs in your recovery, honestly, and without pressure.

Begin with Breathe.

If you are tired of being tired, Begin with Breathe. is a gentle place to start, a women's health introduction built around exactly this kind of slow, supported recovery. Where the body comes home to repair.

Curious whether it is a fit for you? Send us a DM or call the studio, we will talk it through, simply and without pressure.

 

This article is general education about how these wellbeing practices work. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat or manage any medical condition. If you live with endometriosis or are persistently tired, please work with your GP or specialist.

SOURCES

• AIHW, Endometriosis in Australia 2023 — inflammatory condition; around 1 in 7 women; fatigue listed among symptoms; no known cure.
• "Endometriosis is a chronic systemic disease," The Lancet 2021 (ScienceDirect S0140673621003895) — systemic, beyond-pelvis inflammatory effects; pro-inflammatory cytokines.
• "Endometriosis as a Systemic and Complex Disease," review, PMC12842206 — chronic, systemic, multifactorial inflammatory disorder, not lesion-centred.
• "Why endometriosis should be classified as a whole-body inflammatory disorder," The Conversation (2026) — whole-body immune dysregulation; IL-6 / IL-1β; symptoms incl. debilitating fatigue and brain fog.
• Karshikoff et al., "Role of Inflammation in Human Fatigue," Frontiers in Immunology, PMC5247454 — inflammation as a major driver of fatigue; pathological fatigue not relieved by rest.
• Hamblin MR, photobiomodulation anti-inflammatory review, PMC5523874 — red/NIR light, cytochrome c oxidase, ATP, cytokine modulation.
• "Oxy-inflammation in hyperbaric oxygen therapy applications," PMC12038570 / PubMed 39834265 — increased dissolved O₂, tissue oxygen delivery, inflammatory mediators.