3 weeks pregnant and severe (endo?) pain!!

[Jess256]

Hi lovely ladies,

Just wondering if any of you endo ladies have had severe and excruciating pain in your lower abdomen at the start of your pregnancy?

I am around 3 weeks pregnant and, for the last four days I have had these flares of excruciating pain in my tummy. At first the latest around 1 minute but now they can last for up to 10 minutes. They happen a handful of a times a day and each night, waking me up and leaving me wriggling around crying.

I've been to a doctor who took blood from me and I am back again tomorrow (Monday) to see if my levels of HCG have gone up or down - up is good, down suggests it might be ectopic. They did a transvaginal scan but it's too early to see the pregnancy.

My partner and I would really appreciate anyone sharing their experiences of early pregnancy and endo. We are so worried and tearful, just really hoping it isn't ectopic

Thank you all in advance x

[Sarahlouisex]

I don’t have endo, I have endosalpingiosis which is similar. Early in my pregnancy when I didn’t know I was pregnant I was admitted to hospital with what they thought was appendicitis. The pain was honestly so severe I was put on a concoction of drugs that made me hallucinate. No one checked if I was pregnant and I didn’t know as I was on the pill. I then had blood tests which showed I was pregnant and my hormones didn’t rise as they should of done. I think they are suppose to double. So I was sent for a scan after I think 2 lots of bloods not rising at this point they suspected ectopic. However it wasn’t and everything turned out good and I had a healthy boy. Hopefully it’s the same for you, will be thinking of you xx

[applebird]

Hi, pain at this point in pregnancy can occur due to everything moving around and adjusting - however it can be exacerbated for women with endometriosis on two counts - firstly endometrial tissue growing in the abdominal cavity binds organs etc together (like spider webs), if you've had the condition a long time there will be scar tissue also, in early pregnancy endo adhesions won't have receded much so as everything is adjusting it may be pulling the adhesions this way and that causing you more pain than normal. Secondly if you have had surgery previously for endometriosis you will have scar tissue as a result of this too - again as your womb, ligaments etc adjust it can pull on this.

Happened with me and I was scared too.

You are right to be cautious and check out in case of ectopic, but most likely it is because of one or both of the reasons above.

This point in pregnancy is stressful for everyone, try and take it extra easy and get lots of rest as it will help ease the pain. xx

[applebird in reply to applebird]

ps the good news is as pregnancy progresses oestrogen falls and progesterone rises so there isn't anything to stimulate endo growth, it can die back a lot so you should have a lot less pain later on. The second semester you will probably feel better than you have done in a long time x

[NoEndoInSight]

Hello Jess256 and congratulations!

I have had Endo for over 25 years and am currently 33 weeks pregnant and have had quite a bit of pain during my pregnancy including during the early weeks. I’ve also had quite a lot of other complications (bleeding and inflammation etc.), which I won’t lie have been really scary and stressful, but fingers and toes crossed we are still bumping along.

Sadly sometimes it is hard with just ultrasound scan diagnosis available during pregnancy to exactly pinpoint the cause of such issues, but for me the episodes of severe pain have been assumed to initially be associated with implantation pain and then with scar tissue/adhesions trying to stretch as my pregnancy progresses.

In early pregnancy though it is especially important with Endo to keep in touch with your GP to rule out ectopic pregnancy, but there are symptoms other than pain that are associated with that that can help your GP diagnose or rule that out.

Best advice I have is to talk to your GP and ask for advice on how to monitor your pain and any other symptoms, then to just try and take things as easy as you can on days if the pain is particularly bad so you don’t get exhausted by it.

Good luck over the coming months & congratulations again, x X x