Could this be Endo - you've probably heard this a million times!

[RubyTuesday1965]

I'm 48, overweight and in terrible pain!

For the last couple of years I've been getting pain on my right side - Doctor sent me for the ovarian cancer blood test and a scan and this was all ok, but the pain didn't go. This week on the second day of my period (which is always heavy, with clots - seems like too much information) I got a terrible pain in my side that travelled through to my back. After a night with no sleep and went to the local A&E, had an ECG, blood tests, urine tests and the doctor prodded my tum, all over and said that every seemed ok, and put it down to a bad period and possible muscle strain. I've been put on codein and diclafenac but the pain is still there - but not as bad as it was.

When I'm sat down, I'm ok, but when I stand up it's terrible and I really have to 'straighten myself up' It's beginning to worry me now - I haven't been to work since Tuesday. When I'm up I am ok, not free of the pain but ok and I can take the dog for a short walk!

Sorry to ramble but I'm just looking for clues.

Thanks for listening XX

[worth71]

Maybe start to keep a symptom diary for a couple of months, I haven't for a while but last year I made notes of where pain was, how bad it was, what medication I took and if it helped and also kept a diary of when bleeding - I'm overweight too, I've just been actually diagnosed this week with endo but if you want to know anymore just ask or private message me.

Take care xxx

[Jillanovitch]

It could be, Endo won't necessarily show up on a scan, cysts will. The only way to know for sure is to go back to your dr, they'll them your still in pain. Hopefully they'll refer you to a Gyne which is what you need and he will do a larascoptomy, that's a camera through a little hole in your stomach. Endo sometimes is tiny but sometimes it's if it's on an organ like your bowel or bladder it can cause a lot of pain. That is the ONLY way to diagnose this properly Awww good luck luv. Xx

[Impatient]

It could also be adhesions or scar tissue which endo can cause and so can just about any kind of trauma to the stomach area. If you have adhesions that grow and grown they glue themselves to nearby organs and stick them together. If that happens and you change position suddenly or strain or stretch the adhesions they can tear or split and OUCH it hurts or they can really pull on the other organs they are attached to.

A Muscle strain doesn't last 2 years. so it's not likely that.

But if you have adesions attached to ligaments or ovary or anything else on the right hand side there, which has to move as you stand and can't because it is glued together with something else then activities will aggravate the situation and then it needs to calm down and heal again.

coupled with the heavy periods and clots it certainly might be endo.

one way to find out if a period is what is aggravating it, is to stop your periods for a few months with back to back birth control pills from the GP or Family Planning clinic.

Or for longer term relief the wonderous Mirena Coil which when it works is a godsend as you don;t have to remember to take tablets every day. It doesn't suit everyone, but certainly worth considering.

If stopping your periods doesn't ease up the pain symptoms then it is less likely endo related and more likely adhesions or something else entirely.

If all the scans and blood tests and so on came back negative it very hard to justify a lap op to investigate further even though it's the only for sure way to diagnose endo, if that came back negative too, you could still be wondering what on earth is causing the problem.

At 48 you can live without your ovary, so if one side is really troubling you then try and press for it to be taken out if you are pretty sure it's the ovary that's causing the problem, and they do a lap op lookig for endo. Thus you have two reasons for the op.