Endometriosis and bowel problems 💔

[Sonya93]

Hi,

I have had two surgeries and waiting for a date for my 3rd. My last surgery involved taking endo from my bowel. The past year my endo has come back with a vengeance.

I've always suffered with bowel issues and constipation. I have recently found out this could be linked to endometriosis.

I'm just wanting to see if anyone has had any similar experiences.

Could the endo come back worse on the bowel hence the issues becoming more severe now. Or could the previous surgery have affected my bowel resulting in the issues. Eg - scar tissue.

I hope this makes sense and someone could help me as I'm finding it a really struggle this time round with pain wise 😓

[WanderlustLost]

Hiya. It can grow back on the bowel fairly quickly, especially if they didn’t get it all the first time. (I had surgery for it in 2019 but it’s back and worse at the moment). I haven’t had problems with constipation though. More like a lot of pain when pooping even though I’m not constipated. I also have a lot of rectal mucus but no bleeding (most of the time). I am probably getting the looser and painful stool from the endo because I also have IBS but from what I’ve read on here constipation is a far more common side effect of bowel endo. I don’t know if the symptoms you’re experiencing are from new endo growth or from scar tissue but it’s worth going back to your doc and asking for an MRI. It should be able to tell if you have endo re growth. That’s what I had and it confirmed that there’s endo on my bowel again.

[Ronsk]

Hi there, I also have endo on my bowel and have been getting a lot of pain in my abdo when my bowels are preparing to move. It's weird, it's like I can actually feel the stool moving through my lower intestine as its like someone dragging the tip of a knife around inside me until my bowels start emptying. I've been on painkillers longterm so I normally have a little difficulty opening my bowels, then if I don't take pain meds /or I'm a few hours late in taking them I can be loose, but I always get stabbing rectal pain. I also have ibs. I had a lap 3 years b4 having ivf treatment , I was told everything looked really healthy. Then after my first ivf treatment which didn't work they noticed a ovarian cyst so they removed it. That's when they found endo. My parents believe all the hormones during ivf caused my endo.

[WanderlustLost in reply to Ronsk]

I mean the fact that even experts aren’t entirely sure what causes endo means your parents guess is as good as any.I do question the “everything looked fine” though because unless someone is trained to know what to look for they won’t necessarily notice it.

My first lap the doctor was a general gynae surgeon and he was like “eh, it’s mild hardly anything there” and my endo specialist looking at the same surgical notes and photos was like “no, this is severe there is extensive growth and scarring and adhesion”. I think that even among the gynaes there is a lot of education needed. People just don’t pay attention to endo for some reason.

I have been under specialist gynae care for PCOS since I was 14 and despite complaining of classic endo symptoms AND a family history I was 34 before anyone outside my family even said the word to me.

[Diciembr]

Hi Sonya,

I also have endometriosis and I need to have surgery some time in the near future as I had surgery earlier on in the year and more tissues have been found.

I have struggled with constipation all my life and I always thought it was to do with my digestive system only.

I’ve taken several constipation medication but nothing has really made a big difference. I visited a gastroenterologist and other specialists last year as I had some other symptoms. After a few diets and treatments my Gastro recommended I take this vitamin: Magnesium Citrate. This has been the most amazing cure for me and as my doctor said you’re taking Vitamins only and this is something that it’s not going to cause any damage to your health. By all means you should always speak to a doctor before taking any medication, maybe it’s worth visiting a gastroenterologist to rule out any other conditions.