Exercise making it worse?

[Lavenderpetal]

Hi everyone,

I have a question about exercise and endo.

So basically I've been pretty much bedbound all of last year with rare weeks of being able to function, but lately I've experience a good couple of months of feeling better and being able to live! (Don't get me wrong still in pain but manageable)

well I've now moved into a new flat which has meant a lot of going up and down stairs, walking, lifting heavy things ect and this has brought on a massive flare up! Now partially why I was bed bound was because movement such as walking down the road would send me into such bad pain I would spend the week recovering in bed so I guess my question is. Does exercise flare endo? Or is there something else maybe going on with me? Thank you! Xx

[endowarrior12]

I’ve always tried to keep up walking as I’ve never found it makes my pain worse but I try and avoid heavy lifting as it causes that horrible pulling pain in my pelvis. Sorry it’s not much help but as I say walking for me personally is fine, heavy lifting is a no no. Hope you’re doing okay today x

[DarkStar85]

I know when I moved house I was eating takeaways as I was so busy. So my diet caused a flare. And drinking too much wine with the stress! Could it be diet related maybe? Exercise usually improves my symptoms. Hope you feel better soon.

[Moon_maiden]

Technically I’ve been told I’ve no Endo showing but the pain I still get is worse with exercise. When I had bad periods sometimes exercise would help, sometimes make it worse. I think that exercise can cause Endo to inflame.

They know so little to tell us and not doing enough studies we have to listen to our bodies very hard.

[ArcticMonkeys]

Hi my lovely! With me, I always get a flare up when I exercise. Some flare ups worse than others. My thinking is that when you’re exercising, your muscles are contracting continuously. When this is happening, especially in the abdominal area, the Endo gets irritated. This may cause inflammation. Here is something I found in an article “Exercise can also increase the release of prostaglandins in the circulation, which is important for healthy blood flow, but can also result in painful uterine contractions which may exacerbate the symptoms of endometriosis in some people.”

I hope this helps 🫶🏻✨

[Sunset21]

I have experienced the same. It appears to be unique to each person. I have always found after excercise, especially long walks i would experience a flare up. Regardless if i am on my period. The response from Artic Monkey above is very useful. Previously when i mention this, it always gets disregarded.

[BloomingMarvellous]

Have been where you are and it’s a destructive circle that it feels tough to shift out of. If your pelvic floor is spasming, overtight with weaker tissue and adhensions causing restrictions it’s hard to find the balance point.

The worst exercises increase the pelvic floor spasms and make the pain and inflammation kick off. These need to be avoided where you can but there comes a point where that feels pretty impossible. I tackled it via diet changes, some supplements and while it was t about when I got myself together the go to help in my book is Heal Endo by Katie Edmonds. I also did specialist pelvic physio after I really got to grips with understanding the overall mechanics of the problem. Leah Brueg did a great talk with Dr Angie Muller - a endo pelvic floor specialist and you can track it down as a podcast ( number 56/57 ?) via her instagram handle @leah.brueg . It’s a good hour long but invaluable background. Try looking at @corerecoverypt as a way to start supporting the pelvic floor recovery with just specific breathing patterns. It saved my bacon no end.