Do I have endometriosis?

by Zoe
(United States)

I've been dealing with bad periods since if first began menstruating in the 7th grade. I am now at the end of 10th grade, so I realize that this is quite young to be experiencing symptoms, however things have taken a turn for the worse, and my symptoms seem to match.

September last year I experienced a hip injury while on the cross county team, but after a while of physical therapy I was able to rejoin the team. But I continued to feel pain -- even though the physical therapist tested me multiple times and found my hip to be clear of any problems.

In the last two years my menstruation had gotten far worse. They vary, always painful, but are usually tolerable enough to sit and wait for medicine to work. At worse (about 3-4 times a year) my cramps are so incredibly painful that I can't even stand or talk, they cause profuse vomiting, muscle spasms, bad headaches, and low fevers.

Along with that, in the last few months, I've started to get mid to lower back pains and hip pains along the lines of sciatica symptoms. While it isn't consistent enough to be sciatica, the pain is at the sciatic nerve in the hip and occurs after sitting for a while. It very painful and leaves me unable to walk, sit, or put pressure on the leg for a few minutes following it sudden appearance. After that it continues to ache for a while. I also get random pelvic pains and even centralized pains in the pelvic area. Lastly I experience pain when going to the bathroom, usually during bowl movements and sometimes even when laughing.

These symptoms happened around my period at first, but now symptoms of sciatic nerve pain and back pain occurs weekly (the back pain is almost daily).

I've been to the doctor and she put me on birth control (last week) but did nothing to attempt to diagnose me. Perhaps I'm just whining, but the pain is almost always there and its been causing me to just feel anxious and depressed for the last year. I'm having a hard time motivating myself to do anything and I just feel generally exhausted all the time. Maybe it's in my head. Maybe it's just part of how my periods are. But I really need to know that there is actually something wrong and this isn't just normal body pangs and I'm just some hypochondriac. I want to know what is going on.

Thank you so much for reading this far :)

Zoe