Fibroids with pain/bloating before/during ovulation - Anyone??
Posted , 4 users are following.
Hi ladies,
I am a long-time fibroids sufferer. I had a 14 cm pedunculate fibroid removed in 2011 when it's blood supply was cut off and it started to necrotize. It was extremely traumatic! Now, my other smaller fibroids have started getting larger. I have several, two of which are 7+ cm. For about a year I've been getting pelvic pain and bloating from the day my period ends until on or just after I ovulate. My doctors (I recently switched gynecologists) do not believe me when I say the timing is always the same and it must have to do with my cycle!
A few months ago the pain got worse and I could suddenly feel a mass in my lower abdomen. I went to the doctor who also felt it. I had an ultrasound and then MRI to confirm the fibroids and their size AND it turned out that they'd gotten so big that they'd made my uterus flip from tilting backwards to tilting forwards, which is why I can now feel them in my abdomen.
The nice thing is that a lot of my previous symptoms have subsided - I don't get the rectal pain and bladder pressure I was having before when the fibroids must have been pressing on my bowels (which my doctor didn't believe!!) I also have a small umbilical hernia that no longer bothers me at all (also my doctor told me it wasn't being caused or irritated by the fibroids). But, I still get the pain and bloating at the same part of my cycle.
For much of my cycle I can't feel the fibroids and they cause me no issues. But, like clock work, as soon as menstrual bleeding stops, there comes the pain and pressure and I can feel the fibroids pressing into my pelvic area and the whole area is tender. It lasts for a few days and then subsides after ovulation.
I feel like I'm losing my mind because no one believes me that this could be hormonal or in any way related to my cycle. Because of that I have no idea what to do about it! Has anyone else experienced this? It's the only time the fibroids are symptomatic. I would really like to avoid surgery and I'm trying desperately to wait it out until menopause for these suckers to shrink, but I'm only 36 and don't want to deal with this for the next 10-15 years.
I'm not on any birth control because I'm afraid it would make them grow, but I do wonder if it might actually help with this pain.
Any tips?? (Sorry for the novel!)
0 likes, 5 replies
sarah38120 Guest
Posted
hi Erin this correlation between time of month and pain and bloating etc is one that I have been familiar with for over 20 years. I discovered entirely by accident that I could get rid of pain bloating body odor anger fatigue by taking smallish doses of vitamin E in the weeks leading up to my period. I also found out that taking vitamin B supplements seems to undo whatever it is that the vitamin E was doing. There is no science around any of this this is my purely my own personal observations and experience . There are now some medical warnings about ongoing use of vitamin E. I recommend that you check with your GP as vitamin E thins the blood so if you're on warfarin or any other blood thinners or if you have thin blood for any other reason then the vitamin E supplementation is a bad idea. However that said I had a 20-year run managing to have almost symptomless fibroids, other than v heavy periods. I'm finally going to get them taken out very soon, size same as 18 week pregnancy . so the vit E managed other symptoms but not fibroids themselves. may well be a Zinc supplement or vaginal anti-fungal COULD help with fibroid itself but the science is slow...
Guest sarah38120
Posted
Thank you for the response! Just knowing that I'm not the only one makes me feel better! I will look into the vitamin E. I'm not on any blood thinners and think it should be fine, but I'll run it by my doctor first just to be safe. Thanks, again! Good luck with having yours removed!
sarah38120 Guest
Posted
good luck, and good experimenting! taking a daily log of symptoms can be very illuminating, too, and also can help dr realise your observations are careful and systematic, which can help them take your reports seriously.
sarah38120 Guest
Posted
hi Erin this correlation between time of month and pain and bloating etc is one that I have been familiar with for over 20 years. I discovered entirely by accident that I could get rid of pain bloating body odor anger fatigue by taking smallish doses of vitamin E in the weeks leading up to my period. I also found out that taking vitamin B supplements seems to undo whatever it is that the vitamin E was doing. There is no science around any of this this is my purely my own personal observations and experience . There are now some medical warnings about ongoing use of vitamin E. I recommend that you check with your GP as vitamin E thins the blood so if you're on warfarin or any other blood thinners or if you have thin blood for any other reason then the vitamin E supplementation is a bad idea. However that said I had a 20-year run managing to have almost symptomless fibroids, other than v heavy periods. I'm finally going to get them taken out very soon, size same as 18 week pregnancy . so the vit E managed other symptoms but not fibroids themselves. may well be a Zinc supplement or vaginal anti-fungal COULD help with fibroid itself but the science is slow...
kimjon Guest
Posted
I had this about 10 years ago and it turned out I had a cyst on my ovary that was causing the pain. It’s the kind of cyst that comes just before your period and then goes away when your period starts.