Endometriosis history and symptoms
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Aravind Kuchkuntla, M.B.B.S[2]
Overview
History and Symptoms
A major symptom of endometriosis is severe recurring pain. The amount of pain a woman feels is not necessarily related to the extent or stage (1 through 4) of endometriosis. Some women will have little or no pain despite having extensive endometriosis affecting large areas or having endometriosis with scarring. On the other hand, women may have severe pain even though they have only a few small areas of endometriosis.
Symptoms of endometriosis can include (but are not limited to):
- Painful, sometimes disabling menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea); pain may get worse over time (progressive pain)
- Chronic pain (typically lower back pain and pelvic pain, also abdominal)
- Painful sex (dyspareunia)
- Painful bowel movements (dyschezia) or painful urination (dysuria)
- Heavy menstrual periods (menorrhagia)
- Nausea and vomiting
- Premenstrual or intermenstrual spotting (bleeding between periods)
- Infertility and subfertility. Endometriosis may lead to fallopian tube obstruction. Even without this, there may be difficulty conceiving. In some women, subfertility is the sole symptom, and the endometriosis is only discovered after fertility investigations.
- Bowel obstruction (possibly including vomiting, crampy pain, diarrhea, a rigid and tender abdomen, and distention of the abdomen, depending on where the blockage is and what is causing it) or complete urinary retention.
In addition, women who are diagnosed with endometriosis may have gastrointestinal symptoms that may mimic irritable bowel syndrome, as well as fatigue.
Patients who rupture an endometriotic cyst may present with an acute abdomen as a medical emergency. Endometriotic cysts in the thoracic cavity may cause some form of thoracic endometriosis syndrome, most often catamenial pneumothorax.