do you think this could be fibroids? 16 year old

[sallycinnamon4]

hello! i’m a 16 year old girl and wondering if i could possibly have fibroids. i have read that it is not common for women under the age of 20 to have them but i don’t think this particularly true. i have had my period since may 2015 (i had been 12 for about two months) and they have always been terrible. i’ve only ever missed two periods, my second one and my 5th one. they’ve always been from 5-10 days long, very very heavy to wear i would be getting it on my bed sheets but this hasn’t happened for a while. i’ve woke up with the blood down my legs sometimes. i get absolutely terrible cramps and pelvic pain that are so debilitating that i can’t go to school, can’t concentrate, lose my appetite and feel awful. last year i had about four months of lighter, shorter and cramp free periods and thoight this might be the start of them getting better but they only came back worse. i went on the birth control pill microgynon in november but came off it due to bad headaches. i am now on gedarel. in may my period cramps were so bad i threw up three times on the first day of my cycle, this was the day i started on gedarel. my first period since being on this pill has been shorter but hasn’t helped for pain yet and this was the same with microgynon. ANYWAYS, the thing that alarmed me was i was inspecting my tummy as i kept getting a weird like bubble type feeling in my lower left abdomen. to my horror i found a chain of hard/firm maybe gumball or smaller type lumps. i cant tell if they move or not, maybe slightly and i can push them in a bit but they come out again. i can only feel them properly when i lay down and sometimes i can’t find them. when i am sitting or standing it just feels like muscle tissue. they are not visible whatsoever even if i suck my tummy in as far as i can. i first thoight it may be my colon or muscle tissue bc i am very slim but then i thoight it might be fibroids? does this sound correct? i’m very wprried that it’s something worse, i asked my mum and when i suggested fibroids she perked and actually agreed that it could be a possibility. she had a feel around and said that it’s muscle tissue and she can’t feel anything bad but i don’t think she felt properly so i’m gonna get her to check again. anyways does anybody think this sounds like fibroids? i suffer terribly from health anxiety so can’t keep myself away from the lumps and am irritating the area and making it very tender 😥 please offer me some piece of mind ! xx

[sallycinnamon4]

actually i think i would say the lumps are marble sized

[bantam12 in reply to sallycinnamon4]

Sounds very like you are constipated and the lumps you can feel are hard poo, see your GP then he can put your mind at rest.

[sallycinnamon4 in reply to bantam12]

i did think that as i don’t really have regular bowel movements and it’s been like this since i was young

[Lamornalee]

Hi there Sally cinnamon, I'm sorry you're going through all of this worry and pain. I think the best advice anyone could give you is to make a doctor's appointment and ask for a referral to a gynaecologist.

Like you, I started my periods at 12 and they were extremely painful, days off school, high dose painkillers, etc. First appointment at the gynaecologist age 15 and an internal showed nothing. I was diagnosed with dysmenorrhoea (painful periods).

Fast forward 15 years and I mentioned the pain to my new GP, to cut a long story short, I had fibroids and endometriosis.

Take your mum to the doctor's with you for moral support and don't let the doctor fob you off. Even if they dismiss the idea of fibroids, you need a diagnosis, what's happening to you isn't right.

Lamorna

[sallycinnamon4 in reply to Lamornalee]

hello, thanks so much for your reply and advice. my mum doesn’t really think i need to see a doctor and won’t come with me, she said if i’m concerned to go myself. i do want to go but i have bad anxiety surrounding doctors/health/hospitals etc and i’m scared they’ll tell me it’s something terrible and i won’t be able to take my mind off it

[C_Williams]

Hi! I would definitely go get things checked out, I am 19 and I have just been told I have fibroids. I had to go to 3 different Doctors to even be taken seriously so persist and make sure they understand how you are feeling and if they don’t take you seriously go somewhere where they will! I hope everything gets better for you soon hun, good luck! 🙂

[sallycinnamon4 in reply to C_Williams]

thanks so much for your reply ! i’m thinking of going to the doctors soon but am away on holiday next week and would prefer to have a few weeks of relaxing instead of worrying first. i’m sorry you had to deal with that! doctors can be very frustrating at times. just a question, could you actually feel your fibroids? or were they only diagnosed via a scan/ultrasound ? i can feel mine and it freaks me out lol , i say mine as if i’m certain they are fibroids but for now they are lumps haha. i also get a light pressure in the area too, did you get this also? thanks so much ☺️

[C_Williams]

Hi! No I don’t believe you can feel them however I have always had extremely heavy and painful periods, and became quite tired due to being low on iron because of how heavy and long my periods were (Often lasting 3 weeks). I got mine diagnosed by ultrasound but also most women can have them and not even no about them! I have also been told that if they are not causing extreme symptoms and are not too big or too many you can live with them perfectly well. I don’t know so much about the pressure or anything as I have IBS too and wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway 😂

[sallycinnamon4 in reply to C_Williams]

ahhh right i see i see, well i can actually feel hard lumps and this is what made me think it was fibroids, i’m very slim so i’m wondering if this is why i can feel them, hoping this is normal 😞 i have always had the very heavy and extremely painful periods (only lasting up to ten days at most though) and found myself quite tired bc of them too. oh wow i’m sorry to hear that you have to deal with that but i hope you’re doing good !

[C_Williams]

I would definitely go to your doctor about them if they are worrying you because that’s the only way to put your mind at rest, there is no harm in just going to have a chat to someone and explaining what your worries are and seeing what they think. I hope you get some answers and hopefully feel less anxious about it! Good luck and have a great holiday 😄

[sallycinnamon4 in reply to C_Williams]

yeah i think i will just to put my mind at rest, ive always been a big worrier so hopefully it’ll provide me with some reassurance. i’ll update you once i’ve had it checked out, thank you so much i hope you have a nice summer ! ☺️