PLEASE HELP!! Does this sound like endometriosis?

[Hannahscared]

Hi.. I'm 18 years old and would appreciate some help..

I have been getting CONSTANT NON STOP lower abdominal pain for a year now, along with constipation. My periods are not heavy, in fact they are light but they are very painful. Been to the doctors so many times and nothing has helped. However, a few months ago I stopped eating and lost a lot of weight. I didn't have a period for 2 months! The constant pain had GONE. And the constipation! It just went! It felt amazing. Unfortunately I've just finished a period and the pain is terrible again. Constantly there.

Does this sound like it could be endometriosis then? Please help

[Chrissie66]

To be honest, it sounds more like a problem with your digestive system than endometriosis.

Have you seen anybody to discuss it?

[Hannahscared in reply to Chrissie66]

But what would make the main stop when I stopped my periods? That's why it must be something to do with my periods.. And I'm seeing a gastrologinst in jan x

[Chrissie66 in reply to Hannahscared]

Well, I'm not a doctor, but I would suggest that when you have a period, your enlarged womb at the time is irritating your digestive system. If you weren't having periods, no enlarged womb so no irritation, therefore no pain...

I'm not saying it's not endometriosis. But based on what you've said it does sound more like a gastro problem.

[Impatient]

There is nothing to stop you taking the Birth Control pill and taking one packet leading straight in to the next one for a few months to give your body a break from periods. So you can do that - but at the same time you do need to spend a lot of time figuring out what foods are causing digestive upsets, also what drinks, and there is no miracle way to do that other than by trial and error cutting out food types one at a time and then reintroducing them to the diet to see if that causes flare ups - if it does then ban that food from the diet.

Starving yourself is absolutely the very worst thing to do. Your body needs fuel and nutrition throughout its life. Mess with that and you will risk your fertility and health in so many ways, so please do not use starvation as a method to stop periods it is just lunacy to do that.

There are plenty of ways to stop periods and still stay healthy.

There are IUDs like Mirena Coil - which is brilliant and very long lasting - up to 5 years with no periods..(these are the same things you would be expected to try even if you did have endo- but the bonus of a life free of periods is certainly worth trying out the various ways to control periods and find one that suits you. They wont all suit everyone, so you do need to be prepared to try different things.

Diet wise - there are various tests for known gastric illness like Coeliac disease, but for most of us, it is a case of finding what foods do suit us individually and what don't.

Fizzy pop is an absolute no no. Even alcohol can upset the gastric system- so on the drinks side, stick to water for the time being. Then after a week or two try a glass of fresh fruit juice then see what happens, then a day or two later try a different one and so on. Keep a diary of what reaction these things are having.

Same with dairy foods,

Then gluten foods

You won't starve by eating rice for a few days with vegetable soups and blander foods.

Don't forget proteins and carbs, work your way through a core group of foods so that you can settle on a menu of safe food options to stick to each week.

You might be okay with pasta, or with potato etc, but may be not. It really is up to you to figure this out for you as a person.

Meanwhile- have you been checked for STDs -just in case it is a Pelvic infection you have picked up.

Have you had an ultrasound to check for fibroid obstructions in the uterus or ovarian cysts both of which can grow big enough to obstruct the bowel movements passing.

I too am inclined from what you have described, to definitely work on your diet to find what foods reduce your pains most and you might want to look at the endo diet or the coeliac diets to get some idea of healthier food options.

It could be that you have endo too, but you have to work your way through ruling out everything that could be easily sorted out first, before commiting to surgery that you may not need at all.

a lot of this advice is common sense advice which applies whether you have endo or not. Foods & drinks -certain types- can make your pain worse. some can certainly cause constipation- but so too can taking pain killers (they are notorius for bunging you up)- so if you can reduce pain by diet rather than popping pills that cause constipation- so much the better.

Once you have been tested for all the possible causes of constipation in your diet side of things, and all the easily checked other gynae illnesses are ruled out with blood tests, scans and so on...then you are in a much stronger postition to request a referal to a gynaecologist with a view to having surgery to check out signs of endo. It can only be diagnosed with surgery, and can only be removed surgically. there is no cure for it, it can keep regrowing or reappearing elsewhere in the body. it's a nasty persistant condition, so I sincerely hope your situation is much easier to diagnose and to resolve.

Best of Luck