Do I have endo?

[hellolleh]

Hi everyone!

I'm new here, just joined and this seems like a great community. I've had really bad periods and cycles in general for years and wanted to know if this sounds like endometriosis to anyone?

I got my period when I was almost 10, but had no troubles with it until around age 14. I started being bedridden every month for the first 3-4 days of my period due to pain. My periods were also really heavy and lasted 7-8 days. Any health changes, like increasing exercise or eating better, would only help for the first month and then the symptoms would return. Over time, my period got a bit lighter and shorter, and eventually was 5-7 days with bleeding that I'd just call heavy. The pain is still there, though.

I'm 20 now and within the last three years, my cycle become more difficult. I get symptoms like a half a month of severe nausea and emotional sensitivity. Starting two weeks before my period, I get bad cramps that get increasingly bad up to the start of my period. They don't feel like ovulation pain; I've read those are felt in your ovaries while this just feels like period pain. Pain killers have not helped for years, and recently I've moved to migraine medicine (which didn't help at first, see the next paragraph).

I started birth control to see if that would help, and the first couple of months it greatly reduced my bleeding and pain. However, now it only keeps my period to a consistent 5 days and helps the pain medicine work. Outside of that, the symptoms are just the same as before. I've tried two different brands, Marvelon (low dose) and Yasmin which I'm currently on. I also started taking multivitamins— no difference.

This has been really frustrating because I can't figure out how to "fix" it. I don't want to come off my BC (which is a financial strain) because maybe if I stay on it long enough, it'll start working (wishful thinking?). I don't feel like eating healthier or exercising more because it always only works in the short-term. And I can't visit a doctor because of reasons.

Does it sound like I have endometriosis?

[Abi_97]

It could be the heaviness could be a few things but the pain leading up and pain killers not working sounds like like endo 😮I know that you cant go to the doctors but I've had the coil fitted and that has helped so much to ease up my period symptoms 😮

[hellolleh in reply to Abi_97]

Abi,

Could the heaviness be a problem in itself? Since thinking I might have endo, I figured all my period symptoms were being worsened because of it, including that. And I read about the coil while looking at options when I was first going on BC. The insertion and having it up there scares me but I'll keep it in mind for the future!

[Abi_97 in reply to hellolleh]

Hi, hmm not sure if the heaviness could cause the other symptoms but my mum has heavy periods and thats due to thyroids but the reast of the symptoms sound like endo which can cause heavy periods 😂 Bc is that the pill? When it comes to endo its all about trial and error for different people the pill made my periods 10x worse where as the coil has made it less painful but I am constantly spotting 😮

[hellolleh in reply to Abi_97]

Okay, I see. Yeah I'm on the pill now, thought it would help with all this but maybe I need to try some other options too! The constant spotting sounds like a horror though

[becciharman]

This sounds similar to my period life! The symptoms experienced two weeks before period and pain killers ineffective definitely sounds like endometriosis. But if exercise, changing diet and analgesics aren't alleviating your pain symptoms, and bleeds, or you can't visit a medical professional then I'm stumped on how you can help yourself! There are psychological interventions that may benefit the emotional and cognitive experience of your pain, and aid in your coping. Xx

[hellolleh in reply to becciharman]

Becci,

It's nice to know what I'm dealing with even if I can't get medical help immediately! The doctor situation is temporary but I likely won't be able to visit one for a while. I'll learn more about endo and hang around here in the meantime.