After Surgery: do symptoms get worse before they get better?
I got laparoscopic surgery in May to excise endometriosis. This was my first surgery for the problem. To all who have gotten surgery, do your symptoms get worse before they get better? Before surgery, my pain would hit an intolerable level that I would black out. Luckily I was always at home when this would happen. Now, I am starting to have episodes where I feel I am on the verge of blacking out, and I have been out and about when it happens.
Grace Thank you for asking this question. First, let me say that I hope you’ll call your doctor and tell them what you’ve said here. You could have another issue going on that might need treatment. Pain should never be so bad that it causes you to black out, and hopefully they’ll be able to figure out if there’s more going on. And you should tell them if you feel that your pain has gotten worse since the surgery. With that said, I’ll give you my experience. I’ve had 3 laparoscopies. The first two were ablation and they didn’t do much for my pain (though, the first surgery was helpful to ease some of my painful sex). But my symptoms generally didn’t get worse after surgery. Though, I did get a vaginal infection from my second surgery that I needed medication to treat.
My most recent procedure was excision surgery in 2021. It helped with some of my leg and hip pain along with pain after sex pretty much immediately. Though, symptoms of terrible period pain never went away. That might be because my doc thinks I also have adenomyosis and I still have my uterus. And my first period after the surgery was definitely one of the worst I’d ever had. But a few months later things went back to the normal level of terribleness.
I hope others will offer up their experiences. And please let us know how things go! - Keri (endometriosis.net team member)
Goodness, my heart is going out to you, Grace. I can't even imagine how you must be feeling with such intense pain. Echoing Keri, I really hope you've spoken to your doctor about the pain you have been experiencing. If for any reason, they don't help you in the ways that you need, please seek out a second opinion. No one deserves to be in pain like that.
I wanted to share with you that I posted your question on our Facebook page and we got a few responses there as well (apologies for the long link: https://www.facebook.com/EndometriosisDotNet/posts/pfbid02mpzBhsiG65wKqY3bbMit7kwdXGoNvaWzivC1oPqQzHVQ7KivZSEPErH1ezGjnJ6Vl).
Please know that we are sending you so much love over here and that we're always here if you need us. Keri gave you some really amazing insight and I hope others do as well. 💛💛💛 Kayleigh, Endometriosis.net team
