Lower abdo pain - unsure if bowels or womb/ovaries

[Spoony2104]

Hi all! New to this website and am a bit of a hypochondriac I suppose really. Ever since my mum passed away from bowel cancer three years ago, it's been at the core front of my mind and it's so hard to not relate my illnesses to her. (I'm 26 and she was 65 when died) - they keep saying that I'm too young to have anything serious. They say they've done the relative blood tests - a vaginal ultrasound to look at my ovaries and womb .. They looked at my kidneys, my liver, my gall bladder... Literally everything. They couldn't look at my bowels as they said ultrasound can't look at them. 

I've been back and forth from doctors forever and a day and I'm still no better off or further forward. I had my little boy by C section 14 months ago and it all seems to be fine. Never suffered with any infection etc

The pain is sharp but achey and comes and goes every so often. Sort of situated around my ovary area on both sides but sometimes one side hurts without the other. I'm so stuck on what to do. They just keep saying I'm fine - but if I'm in pain... Something wrong no? 

HELP???

[TrishLey]

It must be hard for you, your mum passing away and a new baby all in the last 3 years. It seems you've had quite a lot of tests too. I'm glad they have come back all clear. Try not to worry. If you are in pain constantly then go back to your GP. Perhaps look up the ovarian cancer checker to know what to look out for. But mostly I wish you all the best and I hope you can relax and stop worrying soon.

Best wishes 

Trish 

[Caroles1 in reply to TrishLey]

Sorry this sent before I finished!

Mostly you need to be happy that all is ok and have any bowel checks that are available to you, as Trish said, look at the Ovarian Cancer checker and even speak to the Ovacome nurse to get reassurance,best wishes

Carole xxx

[Caroles1]

Don't panic, there isn't necessarily anything wrong, but no one should be in pain in this day and age.

If it were me, I would ask for a second opinion and talks to my GP for a referral, you could mention your Mums sad passing away

[Hidden]

Hi there...I would ask your GP arrange for you to have a colonoscopy just to put your mind at rest... I'm sure you'll be perfectly fine, but you must be missing your mum terribly at this time and I feel for you so very much.... Take care 

Luanna xx 

[SarahN675]

Hi,

I'm sorry that you are not feeling well. I agree with the other posters and I'm sure that everything will be fine ( easy for us to say though - I know :)). It's great that your tests so far have come back clear. x

I just wanted to give you a little information that may be useful if you decide to push to have possible bowel issues investigated further. Particularly if you've had a change in bowel habits ( which you didn't mention that you have) as well as pain in your abdominal area it may be worth asking for a calprotectin test done ( stool sample). This test basically indicates if there is inflammation in your intestines ( there are many reasons why inflammation might be present including, viral infection, IBD ( Crohns & ulcerative colitis) and cancer. It is by no means a diagnostic test but if inflammation is found then your GP would refer you onto a gastroenterologist. 

Crohns runs in my family ( myself, mum and aunt) ( I am not at all saying that you have this!). What's interesting is that all of our blood tests came back normal when each of us was going through the process of trying to get a diagnosis. It was only having the calprotectin test and getting high results that persuaded the GP to refer me to a gastroenterologist. Up until that point we had gone down the gynaecologist route as my abdo pain was quite low initially. He had then decided that it was probably IBS ( IBS can give you lots of abdo pain too but does not cause inflammation, unlike IBD). The calprotectin test is a useful tool for helping to decide whether to have further investigations.

i hope that you feel better soon and that if you don't, you can get some answers. If you do end up having a colonoscopy to put your mind at rest, as someone else suggested - it's really not that bad ( the pill cam is much easier though).

Sorry to ramble on, it's just that I wasn't aware of the calprotectin test until last year - I wish I'd known earlier as it would have moved things forward a bit quicker for me x