Some periods HORRIBLE, others not-so-much?

[ala_gray]

Hey ladies! I started my period when I was 11 (currently 34) and have had one day of horrible pain for as long as I can remember (and after reading so many heartbreaking posts, I am considering myself very thankful for just 1 day of pain). Last October, I started bleeding rectally the week before my period and having HORRIBLE fatigue. My January period was one of the worst I've ever had, but December, February and March weren't that painful at all!!! Honestly, the easiest periods I've ever had! I still had rectal bleeding and fatigue, but the pain was easily managed. I met with an Endo specialist and he suspects it's on my bowel. I am being setup for a lap., but now I'm kinda questioning even having surgery since my last 3 out of 4 periods weren't so bad!

A few questions:

(1) Do you ever experience some horrific periods and some that aren't bad?

(2) Do any of you just have endo on your bowel and not your ovaries/uterus?

(3) Do you feel that endo is wreaking havoc on your immune system? I keep getting a cold/flu/virus following my period.....which I'm assuming is because my iron levels are so low and I'm anemic.

Thank you endo warriors!!!

xoxo

[AKeeble85]

Hi ya

My advise would be to still go for the lap as it is as much diagnostics as is a treatment . I had irregular symptoms for 9months and when finally went for screening I was at Stage 4 Endo

Your immune system would be affected for sure.

Additional vitamin supplements help me get through the day

[ccsmith]

I was like that either very heavy but pain manageable or worst pain ever but bleeding not as heavy! I do have endo on/in my bowel as well so had rectal pain, urgency and bleeding.

I would get the laparoscopy as the doctor can guess but without looking inside they don’t know for definite.

Best wishes x

[Tillyfloss]

hi. Hope you're having a comfortable day. For your questions,

1), yes that's exactly what happened to me, i would have ok periods ( paracetamol and hot water bottles would control and other times I would be in awful pain with sickness, temp and unable to get to the bathroom without help. Just thought I was unlucky and gp was never interested. It turned out that the times the pain was very bad was when the right ovary had released an egg, I had cysts, the way they were attached caused this level of pain ( it took emergency surgery at my local hospital for a ruptured cyst and seeing an endometriosis specialist to get this explanation though 🙉). It made perfect sense once it had been explained and I saw the cysts on the ct&MRI scans. I could also tell which way it would go two weeks into a cycle as I would get niggles on my right side, knew I had to prepare for a bad month.

2) when the specialist operated I was in his words ' riddled with it'. He tackled as much as possible ( the MRI didn't show the extent of the endometriosis and various complications with the emergency surgery meant they missed it). I was left with the endometriosis on my bowel and bladder which have both got deep infiltrated endometriosis and surgery isn't an option its gone to far. It gave me the reason for the terrible pain going to the bathroom. For this two things help, I use the endometriosis diet, my husband researched it and for 4/6 weeks I stuck to it like it was the law😃, worked brilliantly the bloating and pain eased. I then one thing at a time introduced foods to see what the triggers were. For me I just can't have pasta in any form even gluten free starts it off, I can't cope with pizza and bread with seeds or some sweet treats. I don't always get it right and eat something that upsets which comes to the other thing that helps and for me it's paracetamol and buscopan, has to be 2 of each and within a few hours the pain has gone.

3) yes without doubt my immune system suffered I would pick up every cold and bug going so working with children I was always ill🙉.

personally I would still go for the lap as already said it'll give you a diagnosis and with that you can manage it which ever way suits you best. If it's caught and managed you should hopefully be able to reduce your pain. I had to have surgery due to the cysts and even though he couldn't treat it all the difference was huge, I had prostap injections afterwards and the the cycles I had after that were the most normal I've ever experienced. I'm now 20 weeks pregnant and I've been lucky to get no endometriosis trouble at all being pain free is brilliant!

hope my rambling helps a little and good luck. Xx

[Thecraftyadder]

Hi there.

1/I would get patches of more manageable periods when I was a bit younger. Like you I started my periods at 11 and would have 1 really bad day. Then I got to ending up vomiting and climbing the walls with pain having a horrific one every 12 months or so . I'd always had symptoms since a teen but managed to ignore them after getting nowhere with doctors (told in was ibs) as they weren't constant until in 2017 my body seemed to go into melt down and I was in a+e every 3 months or so. By the time I was diagnosed in November last year (at age 37) I was in pain every day and my periods have got really heavy.

2/ I only have endometriosis on my right uterosacral ligament. But its deep and close to my bowel and ureter so can cause bowel and bladder symptoms due to inflammation. But none on ovaries or uterus.

3/ absolutely!!! There's been a good few posts on here about that you could read through.

Definitely get it investigated. Its always better to know what's going on with your body. Hopefully you will get booked in for a lap soon x