Symptoms of endometriosis vary from person to person. Some women have no symptoms.
The most common symptoms include:
- painful or heavy periods
- pain in the lower abdomen (tummy), pelvis or lower back
- pain during sexual intercourse
- bleeding between periods
- fertility problems
The experience of pain varies between women. Most women with endometriosis get pain in the area between their hips and the tops of their legs. Some women have this all the time, while others only have pain during their periods, when they have sex or when they go to the toilet.
Other symptoms may include:
- discomfort when urinating
- bleeding from your back passage (rectum)
- bowel blockage (if the endometriosis tissue is in the intestines)
- coughing blood (if the endometriosis tissue is in the lung)
How severe the symptoms are depends largely on where in your body the endometriosis is, rather than the amount of endometriosis you have. A small amount of tissue can be as painful as, or more painful than, a large amount.
