Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Hey Michele,

The symptoms of endo are really varied, alot of women will have really painful, heavy periods (so much fun), but for some reason a large chunk of women have no symptoms at all. Many women don't get diagnosed until they start TTC, and have difficulty. It wouldn't show on an ultrasound or a D&C, they have to do exploratory surgery to find it. It's a very strange disease, sometimes women can have tons of it inside them and have no pain, whereas other women can just have one or two lesions and have tons of pain. Here's an interesting blurb from the Mayo Clinic:

Pain is a common symptom of endometriosis. However, severity of pain isn't necessarily a reliable indicator of the extent of the condition. Some women with mild endometriosis have extensive pain, while others with more severe scarring may have little pain or no pain at all.

Endometriosis is sometimes mistaken for other conditions that can cause pelvic pain, such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) or ovarian cysts. It may be confused with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a condition that causes bouts of diarrhea, constipation and abdominal cramping. IBS can accompany endometriosis, which can complicate the diagnosis.

I hope that helps. Please be prepared if your doctor doesn't seem to know much about it, alot of doctors know scarily little about it. I know women who have gone years without a diagnosis, not to be diagnosed until they were having problems conceiving (alot were told they had IBS - go figure).

Anyways, good luck at the doctor

I'll be thinking about you.

Kelly

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