How do I know it is endometriosis?

As I discussed last week, endometriosis is a very common condition – affecting anywhere from 6-10% of all women of reproductive age and up to 45% of infertile women. It is well known that endometriosis can cause infertility, although it has not been identified as a cause of recurrent pregnancy loss. Despite this, it is commonly overlooked during the infertility evaluation.

Endometriosis can be missed for years because women and GPs alike do not always recognise the symptoms.

Dr Caroline Overton, consultant gynaecologist at St. Michael's University in Bristol, says that the reason many women don't know they should go to the doctor is because they put up with the pain thinking it's just part of their menstrual cycle.

'There's such a wide spectrum of what women consider 'normal' that people assume whatever they're feeling is normal because they don't know anything else,' says Dr Overton.

'But if the pain is so bad you can't get to work, you're confined to bed, you have hot water bottles on your stomach and back and you have to take painkillers – something is wrong.

'These women are having labour-like pain from their belly down to their knees. It's completely overwhelming, and not like any normal period pain you would recognise,' she says.

Usually pain occurs during a period, although you can also have pain that increases in the run up to a period. Other common symptoms include discomfort during intercourse and a terrible pain in the bowels when you go to the toilet.