Confused, need help!!

[Hayley723]

I saw the doctor yesterday, and she said it's either ibs or endo. Now, haven't many of you been misdiagnosed with ibs before they realized it was endo, or ended up having both? Do they typically go hand in hand, or what are the chances it is just ibs? I now am being sent to a gastro doctor for ibs, and wondering what he will do? What is the difference in the pains between the two? I also switched gyns to one that my other doctor recommended and has advanced training in laparoscopy, but couldn't get in until the middle of may. Sorry, lots of questions, but if anyone has any answers I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much!!

[oneconcernedgirl]

well i pretty well have my symptoms all month now, atleast for the last two months but the pains had always been coming on like four or five days before the period and then as i started my period it was a lot worse but would end by the end of my period.

[Hayley723]

Did the pains start out only during your periods, then become worse each period or at other random times during the month?

[oneconcernedgirl]

Yeah, well the hip pain to me feels like it is in the bones....and the leg pain it is just like all my muscels are cramping up and my leg is restless, can't relieve the pain hardly

[Hayley723]

can you describe your hip pain to me because my gyn told me that it's unrelated and I should go back to my regular dr. and I was pissed because if you read anything it says you can get hip and leg pain. So, my urologist gave me her gyn's name and said she'd get to the bottom of it! But my hip pain kind of feels like burning/throbbing, pain usually on the insides of my hips, sometimes feels like it goes through them, and numbing/throbbing pain down the backs of my thighs and knees. Thanks for the info!!

[oneconcernedgirl]

oh and the bowel movements are the worst...

[oneconcernedgirl]

Well like I said they couldn't remove it all, and the Lupron didn't either.  My periods went back almost immediately after all that to horrible and now are even worse.  I am getting ready to go back to the doctor but my dr told me I was probably going to have to see an infertility dr if i wanted to try for kids again.  I don't want to do anything unnatural so all that is out of the question for me, I'll adopt if it comes to that.  Anyway, the pain the first and second day is well I want to be taken to the er all day long... i can't do anything else, I must take off of work if it falls on a work day, i dont really get out of bed, I lay on a heating pad and that will relieve some pain, without the heating pad I am in unbearable pain.  I do find that aleve is the best OTC medicine that helps to minimize it but even with the heating pad and 2 aleve every 4 hours it is still pretty bad.  The bleeding is heavy, and seems to get heaveier each time.  The bloating is herendous, can't fit into anything while on my period.  And that starts about a week 1/2 before.  My symptoms really have gone to all month long now, I have started with the worse pains in my "area" that I used to only have one or two days a mo.  My hips and left leg hurt terribly.
Those are things that are related to my endo.
Oh and aleve kind of eat at your stomach so I wouldn't use that as a permanent solution either.  I switch between ibuprofren like motrin or advil to aleve. I only use aleve like the first and second day.

Let me know how things work out please.

[Hayley723]

Yea, I get very bloated now, have pelvic pain even through my hips, I get stabbing pains through my butt and pelvic area. I have a daughter so it didn't affect me there, but I'm afraid it might if I let it go. My "symptoms and pains" didn't start until after I had my daughter (a little bit during too). My cramps also have been excrutiating! How bad is your endo and what do/did your pains feel like?

[oneconcernedgirl]

Ok, well I was about to be Diagonosed with IBS before I told the Dr. no I think it is endo and he had to get it approved through my insurance to have the surgery right off because it was based on my judgement mainly.  I was in so much pain that I was in a hurry to find out... he performed the Lap and sure enough that is what I had.  I have been on the Lupron shot for 6 mths before after surgery and it still didnt help so I dont know, endo has caused me to be unable to get pregnant.  Have you had any problems with infertility?  I also have the horrible bm's and my stomach swells like crazy all the time now.  I have a lot of pelvic pain with mine and my cramps are unbearable even with ibuprofren.

[katrat000]

I was diagnosed with endo, but before that had been seeing a gasterologist, for severe bloating, pain in stomach, back, legs and also having major pain when going to the toilet. It was after having my third ultra sound that they found a cyst on one of my ovaries. I was sent for a laproscopy and they found that my bowel was attached to my right wall by the endo. They removed the bowel that was attached. Within a year  I was in having the endo removed. Been feeling 100% since. So I would say alot of the symptoms that endo does give, mimics ibs. Worth having a laproscopy to find out what's going on. Endo could have some organs stuck together. I didn't even know about this slow killing disease. Good luck.

[Hayley723]

does the colonoscopy help in diagnosing ibs though?

[ticked]

no.  they just tell you that.  that is what they told me.  i would push for a lap, but still do the colonscopy anyway so that you rule it out.  They might be looking for other things as well.

[Hayley723]

I have not had a lap, my gyn said "just keep taking bc pills and eventually they will help you". So I told my urologist, and she gave me her gyn's name, and is also sending me to gastro dr. but i cant get into her dr. until may. She told me she thinks ibs or endo, but that someone has to rule one out to figure out what the pains are from. Lately I've been having bad rectal pains that shoot through my pelivic area as well. They wake me up at night sometimes now too. Can a colonoscopy show that you have ibs though?

[ticked]

have you had a lap yet i cant remember?  I was told i had IBS for 15 yrs.  I went to gastro right before my surgery and she gave me this medication to take and it was awful.  i had to go back and she did a colonoscopy to see if the endo had gone through the bowel, and it hadnt.  I knew they wouldnt find anything and I knew that i didnt have IBS, and if i did have it, there is no way that it could cause this much pain.

The symptoms i had were;

severe rectal pain even when i didnt have to go

was extremely painful to pass gas or a BM

before my period i would have to have many BM than that day or the next i would get my period and it would be so painful until i had a BM but that would happen until about the 6th day.  If i did go it wouldnt be much and i still had lots left.

I was bloated

I couldnt put tampons in, it kept hitting something

Would hurt to have sex

I also had a rectovaginal cyst that was causing the blockage.  I am not sure if I didnt have that if it would have caused that pain.

Since my surgery i have felt totally awesome with the pain dispite the bloating and gas pain that i still get which could be due to IBS or that the endo has returned.

are you going in for a surgery?

[Hayley723]

I have researched them both, but I'm finding it hard to differenciate the pains. I also read that ibs acts up during your period, which makes it more confusing. The only kind of pains I have which I can't find related to ibs is pain through my hips and down the backs of my legs. I also get pain in the same general area a lot, around my left ovary, mostly stabbing, sometimes dull and constant. I just don't want to waste time and an appt. with a gastro doctor if I don't have to and I have also heard that they are quick to say you have ibs, even though the dr. that referred him said he wouldn't do that!

[ashleybrook]

Well first off what are your symptoms?  The two are often confused for each and also, for some reason if you have one you are more likely to have both.  To be honest the IBS diagnosis is the GI docs best friend.  It is basically a way to give a person a diagnosis when they really cant explain it otherwise!  I have been dx with both endo and IBS!  And it took me tons of docs and appts to get it right.  The only true way to diagnose Endo is through a lap!  Unless they can confirm an Endometrioma on U/S but those are often confused with a hemorrihac cyst.  IBS will not cause period problems, painful sex, etc.  It will cause painful cramping, bouts of constipation and diaherria!  Just do some research online on both topics, you will find there is a link between the two.