Endometriosis & Adenomyosis Symptoms
Endometriosis and Adenomyosis can cause a wide range of symptoms that vary from person to person. Understanding these symptoms is the first step toward getting the care you need.
Bladder Pain
Bladder pain or pressure that flares with your cycle, or feels like a UTI while urine tests come back clear, can be a sign of endometriosis on or near the bladder. Adenomyosis can contribute too, when an enlarged, tender uterus presses on the bladder.
Bloating
Endo belly is bloating that can swell your belly within hours, often worst before and during your period. With endometriosis or adenomyosis it can be driven by inflammation, a more sensitive gut or an enlarged uterus, not just by what you eat.
Chest Pain
Chest pain that comes back with your period, and for some around ovulation, can be a sign of endometriosis on the diaphragm or, more rarely, inside the chest. It's often felt under the right ribs and worse with deep breaths. Because chest pain can also be an emergency, heart and lung causes are always checked first.
Constipation
Constipation that worsens before or during your period can be a sign of endometriosis or adenomyosis. Inflammation, scar tissue and tight pelvic floor muscles can make it harder to go, even when endometriosis isn't on the bowel.
Diarrhea
Loose stools and sudden urgency that flare just before and during your period can be a sign of endometriosis or adenomyosis, especially with cramping, pelvic pain or painful bowel movements. Chemicals released with your period can loosen stools for many people, but with endometriosis the effect can be stronger and more painful.
Fatigue
Adenomyosis and endometriosis can both cause deep, whole-body exhaustion that a full night's sleep doesn't fix. It often comes from heavy periods that drain your iron and pain that breaks up your sleep, and it tends to peak around your period.
Heavy Menstrual Bleeding
Soaking through a pad or tampon every hour or two, passing large clots or bleeding for more than a week can be a sign of adenomyosis, and sometimes of endometriosis. Heavy periods can also drain your iron, and they deserve a clear diagnosis.
Infertility
Trouble getting pregnant can be the first sign of endometriosis or adenomyosis, even when you otherwise feel fine. Both can affect ovulation, fertilization and implantation, and both can be treated with your family plans in mind.
Leg Pain / Sciatica
Pain that radiates from the pelvis into the hips, thighs or down the leg can be a sign of endometriosis or adenomyosis, and it can feel like sciatica. A key clue is pain that follows your cycle.
Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain is a common but often overlooked sign of endometriosis and adenomyosis. It can be a deep ache across your beltline or a sharp, pulling pain that wraps from your pelvis into your back, and it often flares with your period.
Nausea
Adenomyosis and endometriosis can both cause nausea, and sometimes vomiting. It often peaks with period cramps and heavy bleeding, but inflammation, bowel irritation and severe pain can bring it on between periods too.
Ovulation Pain
Mild, one-sided twinges around ovulation are common. Ovulation pain that is severe, lasts for days or comes back every month can be a sign of endometriosis or adenomyosis, especially alongside painful periods or painful sex.
Pain During Intercourse
Deep pain during sex, or a cramping ache afterward, can be a sign of endometriosis behind the uterus or of adenomyosis, which can make the uterus tender. Sex shouldn't routinely hurt, and effective treatment is possible.
Painful Bowel Movements
Bowel movements that hurt, with deep rectal pain or pressure that flares around your period, can be a sign of endometriosis behind the uterus or on the bowel. Adenomyosis, which often comes with it, is linked with more bowel symptoms too. Pain that follows your cycle is a key clue.
Painful Periods
Severe cramps, or period pain that keeps getting worse or gets in the way of your day, can be a sign of endometriosis or adenomyosis. Pain that starts before bleeding, lingers after it or barely eases with pain relief is worth mentioning to a specialist.
Painful Urination
Burning, stinging or pain when you pee that flares around your period, or feels like a UTI while urine tests come back clear, can be a sign of endometriosis on or near the bladder. Adenomyosis can contribute too, usually more indirectly, when an enlarged, inflamed uterus irritates the bladder next to it.
Pelvic Pain
Pelvic pain is one of the most common signs of endometriosis and adenomyosis: a deep ache, cramping or stabbing pain low in the belly that often flares with your cycle and can linger between periods. Common doesn't mean normal.
Shortness of Breath
Breathlessness that comes back with your period can be a sign of endometriosis on the diaphragm, or anemia from heavy bleeding caused by adenomyosis. The timing tells you more than the sensation alone does.
Shoulder Pain
Shoulder pain that comes back with your period can be a sign of endometriosis on the diaphragm. It's often felt at the tip of the right shoulder, though the left shoulder or both can hurt. When it happens tells you more than where it hurts.
Urinary Urgency
Needing to pee often, or feeling you have to go right now, can be a symptom of adenomyosis or endometriosis, especially when it flares around ovulation or before your period. With adenomyosis, an enlarged uterus can press on the bladder; endometriosis on or near the bladder can irritate it and its nerves, even when urine tests are clear.