Like many common conditions, endometriosis isn’t fully understood yet by the medical community. Research hasn’t made it entirely clear what causes it or if it can be prevented.When prevention isn’t possible, knowing the symptoms and being able to detect it early can be especially important.
Unfortunately, many of the symptoms of endometriosis are often dismissed as more severe, but still normal, symptoms of menstruation or PMS.
Pelvic pain is the most common, defining symptom of endometriosis, but it isn’t the only one. Common symptoms of endometriosis include:
- Heavy bleeding: This is one of the most common symptoms people with endometriosis experience and there are several reasons for it. The most prominent is inflammation. Endometriosis is a condition that causes increased inflammation. This changes the way your body’s tissues respond to the hormones that are responsible for the menstrual cycle. And it changes how those hormones communicate with one another. This leads to increased bleeding during periods and, sometimes, in between periods as well.
- Pelvic cramps: Mid-cycle, during, or leading up to menstruation, endometriosis can cause cramps that are stronger or more painful than usual. Again, this has to do with the increased inflammation as well as scar tissue that builds up in the pelvis as a result of the endometrial nodules outside of the uterus.
- Painful sex: Pelvic pain from endometriosis can also show up as painful sexual intercourse. This symptom can either come up at any time during your cycle. This pain has been described either as a sharp, jabbing pain, or as a deep ache. Pain from sexual intercourse can happen either during intercourse, in the hours and even days after, or both.
- Painful urination or bowel movements: Especially during menstruation, endometriosis can cause painful urination or bowel movements. This happens especially when you have endometrial tissue deep into the pelvis involving the ligaments that hold your uterus in place, and areas close to and including bladder and bowel. In addition to this, those with endometriosis have changes in their nerves and how their brains receive signals of pain from those nerves which causes increased pain and decreased tolerance to pain.
- Infertility: Somewhere between a third and half of all women with endometriosis experience infertility. Other symptoms: Endometriosis may also cause other symptoms that aren’t always easy to distinguish from a regular period, like increased sensitivity to pain, fatigue, constipation, diarrhea, bloating or nausea, most commonly during menstruation.
You don’t have to suffer through your symptoms alone. Working with a qualified provider can help you diagnose and treat your endometriosis, relieve your pain, improve fertility and prevent further scarring and damage.
Reviewed by the Ovia Health by Labcorp Clinical Team
Sources
- Mayo Clinic Staff. “Endometriosis.” Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic, Aug 20 2024. Web.
- ACOG “Diagnosis of Endometriosis” Clinical Practice Guideline Number 11. March 2026. Web.
- “Endometriosis: Does It Cause Infertility?” ASRM. American Society of Reproductive Medicine, 2012. Web.
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2833561?utm_source=openevidence&utm_medium=referral
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33640070/
