5 Warning Signs You Might Have Endometriosis...
Okay lovely, imma rattle through some pretty bog standard, across the board, widely accepted endometriosis symptoms. I guess you should think of these as a bit of a checklist and if you find them sounding all too familiar, it may be worth pushing your GP for a referral. Plus - little disclaimer! You could have endo and not have these symptoms at all, it’s certainly not a one size fits all situation. You know your body better than anyone else and if you think you need to be seen by a specialist, you deserve to get a referral x
Pain - I’m going to divide this up into THREE categories
Pain on period - this is the kind of pain that stops you from doing normal activities, knocks you for 6, leaves you missing work and probably having to go back to bed
Pain when you go to the toilet - whether it’s for a number 1 or number 2, pain when you go to the loo and empty your bladder/bowels
Pain with intercourse - this is never healthy and certainly not fair on you. Women with endometriosis often struggle with pain during penetrative sex and find certain positions in particular excruciating. In fact, some women sadly can’t have penetrative sex full stop due to endo.
Heavy Periods - now you might not know what heavy is, because heavy may just be “normal” for you - how are you supposed to compare? It’s hardly like we’re all going to go around sharing photos of measuring jugs…so I’m talking periods that soak through tampons/pads/trousers and mean you need to change your products a little too regularly.
Tummy issues - this covers a whole world of issues (yay!) but basically; feeling sick, constipation, diarrhoea, general tummy unwellness - I actually know of girls who got told they had IBS before they had their endometriosis diagnosis… interesting.
Infertility - sadly, you often won’t recognise this as a symptom until later down the line. An AMH test (which you may have to pay for) can give you an indicator of your ovarian egg reserve but it’s not concrete and there are other endo-related factors which can impinge upon fertility. It can cause issues with your fallopian tubes, which in turn can cause ectopic pregnancies - whether you have lots of eggs or not, this damage would still be a problem. I hope however and cross every finger/toe/eye that this does not impact you like it has me.
Fatigue - one of my least fave symptoms, fatigue leaves you feeling very, VERY tired, like all the time tired, going to sleep tired and waking up tired. Tired, tired, tired.
It’s super important that if you do have these symptoms, you don’t just pass them off as “probably endo” and then not get checked out. To be honest, you’re most likely right, but it’s still important to not self diagnose and seek help from the profesh people. I KNOW that can be sooo hard, especially when you feel like you're bothering your doctor/they’re irritated with you/they don’t listen, and it might feel easier to just live with the symptoms BUT an endo diagnosis is the first step in getting help, and if it’s not endometriosis then these symptoms could be something else that’s SERIOUS, so pinky promise you’ll get looked at.