Sciatica with endometriosis - 2 years of pain

[BethRidout24]

After a long period of pelvic pain with little to no explanation, I have recently been diagnosed with endometriosis.

During the last 2 years, I have been suffering daily with excruciating & irritating sciatic pain for which I couldn’t find an answer to. Mechanically my lower back is fine and is never painful with movement, nor do i recall a specific time when this pain was induced. It came on slowly but has stuck around for two years without any respite.

After being trialled on a oestrogen blocker to see if endo was likely a problem for my pelvic pain, I started to notice that my sciatica was improving. It wasn’t until then that I found the connection of it being very cyclical with my hormones.

With endo now confirmed, I am more confident than ever that it is all connected but my gynae has made no effort to support this as they are very stuck in their ways. Anything outside of text book symptoms seems to get ignored.

I use a TENS machine every day and also take gabapentin for pain but neither provide long relief. I’m considering getting a nerve block whilst I continue to dig for answers.

Any help would be awesome and to maybe also feel heard if someone else has been through this?

[BloomingMarvellous]

You may find that it’s due to DIE on the sciatic nerve itself which is a thing and causes horrible pain or it maybe coming from intra abdominal pressure result of the inflammation, swelling and general dysfunction in the area . Or it maybe both ! Getting it properly checked out for DIE is important.

Alleviation is a bit of an exploratory trip so informative areas to explore are proper core functioning and reducing the inflammation . Will DM some possibly useful start points to look at

[BethRidout24 in reply to BloomingMarvellous]

Thank you so much for your helpful input and for the personal message also. I will absolutely be diving further into both options to keep informed. Thanks for your kindness.

[BloomingMarvellous in reply to BethRidout24]

You’re very welcome 💝

[BethRidout24 in reply to BloomingMarvellous]

May i ask what you mean by DIE in relation to the nerve though?

[guillemot in reply to BloomingMarvellous]

Hi,

I am also struggling with sciatic nerve pain for over a year now, and was recently told by my gynaecologist that endometriosis would not cause it. She did say quickly afterwards that it could be DIE but didn't say anything further about it and I was too stressed to think about asking questions properly by that point.

Hope it's alright to ask how DIE is diagnosed/found, especially if it is on sciatic nerve, would they pick that up on any scans? I had a lower back MRI last year that came up clear, and the gynae suggested maybe being referred to orthopaedics as I've already seen the rheumatologist..

Sorry I don't have anything helpful to add Beth, other than a similar experience! I have also noticed it definitely gets a lot worse around my period. I really hope you manage to find something that provides a bit of relief from it soon!

[BloomingMarvellous]

it’s an acronym for Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis. Fundamentally gets into muscular and other tissue beneath the surface

[BloomingMarvellous]

It sometimes shows on MRI’s but the trick is the right operator and analysis. Lindle ( on here ) has a lot of useful info on scanning and accuracy issues.

Always worth considering referred pain from elsewhere in the pelvis. The uterus is held in situ by a ligament that is 3 fingers width ( figures given it’s role) If the uterus is misaligned, or compromised by adhesions or just plain swollen and inflamed then you get pulling of the pelvic core which can cause sciatica. Just imagine a tent with wonky guy ropes and you’ve got the picture of the pelvis struggling to get aligned properly. Wonky pelvis can create pinching of the sciatic nerve with the muscle tissue in the buttock and back.

Pain, stress ,poor breathing and inflammation can cause the pelvic floor itself to become overtight instead of flexible. When it gets overtight it becomes rigid and can cause additional pressure on the sciatic nerve as all the pelvic muscles overwork, get sore and quickly fatigue. Traditional pelvic core work can actually aggravate the issue by over righting the floor further …Bowel and bladder can feel over stimulated and irritable or leaky. ( Joy of joys).

The more flare and inflammation the more discomfort and blood/lymph restrictions can happen. At this point you get even more intra abdominal pressure and more referred problems including bowel /bladder disturbances and sites for infection increase. If they are right regarding bacterial infections having a role in lesion development then we get more likelihood of further endo sites developing . A vicious nasty cycle.

[guillemot in reply to BloomingMarvellous]

Hi,

Thanks so much for your reply, and all the information you've given, it's really helpful! Going to try and talk to my doctor about it, and see where we go from there...Thank you very much! =)