Have I got endometriosis ?

[AG1995]

I’ve just turned 24 and since mid June have felt problems in my lower right admominal, my last few periods have been very heavy usually with brown discharge the few days before and I get bad pain from my back going down my leg and to my shoulder. Often my right side becomes swollen and feels like something is prolapsed pushing out, and sometimes like a feeling of weight being pulled down inside me on my right side. I also get bad headaches before my periods about to start, I usually am quite light and have 1 a month however I only finished my last one a couple of weeks ago and have just come on again and my pain is worse than ever, does this sounds like it could be it ? I’ve been to a&e before with the pain as thought it could be appendix but my cat scan came back clear and nothing was on my ovaries as they wanted to check for cysts or kidney stones also, been to doctors since and have been referred for blood tests and ultrasound. The pain seems to get better once my period has finished but after a week or two it starts coming back. Painkiller hardly helps, Really worried something could be more wrong.

[NW248]

It could be endo, but the symptoms of endo are a little vague.

Are you sure the scan you had was CT (CAT) Scan and not MRI. MRI often shows up endo, but not always.

Do you have flu like symptoms around your period, feeling run down, brain fog etc. ? Do you also get this around the time of ovulation?

[AG1995 in reply to NW248]

Hey,

Yes it was definitely a ct scan, also had blood tests, urine sample take all the usual tests to check for Sti/ uti and everything came back fine, they just said to me to take pain killer afterwards if it gets worse come back.

I usually feel tired with a lot of aches and pains, my headaches are the worst though. Forgot to also say I have had some pain during sex but again it’s not all the time.

The symptoms I have all seem to be at there worse just before I start and then barely present once I have finished for a few days and the gradually come back and so on. Doctor also told me to keep a food diary as could be ibs or an allergy but I haven’t seen a pattern with anything at all, and I haven’t had any bowel or uriniry problems it all seems to relate to when I have periods.

[NW248]

It sounds like endo, that isn't to say it couldn't be something else. The tiredness is because your immune system detects something where it shouldn't be, but for some reason can't actually deal with it. So you get similar symptoms to flu.

There may also be an issue with candida, l believe this is a big factor in hormonal headaches. I wrote quite a bit about candida and endo here. healthunlocked.com/endometr...

Note that if you go on a very low-carb diet you will feel very ill for a few days then gradually get better. This is because as the candida dies it sends out chemical signals to your body to tell it to give it carbs, it is rather like withdrawing from drugs, your body is going to feel worse before it gets better, like having a handover and flu together. Note that you still need energy and need to replace carbs with fat.