Is endometriosis worse than fibromyalgia?

I observed my wife suffer from endometriosis and fibromyalgia for a number of years, however, being a man, it seems impossible to answer if endometriosis is worse than fibromyalgia if you don’t have these conditions yourself.

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Trying to figure it out on my own would not be possible, but I’ve learned a lot speaking to my wife and other women suffering from both conditions.

Here’s what I’ve learned by doing extensive research. I asked my wife directly and she voted for endometriosis being the worse condition in her situation since she suffers from stage IV deep infiltrating endometriosis.

But to be sure, I also asked on various social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Here’s what I found:

I conducted a survey asking 184,000 women if endometriosis is worse than fibromyalgia. I found that 80% of women who suffer from both conditions felt that endometriosis is significantly worse than fibromyalgia, 15% said that fibromyalgia is worse than endometriosis, and 5% thought both conditions were feeding off each other.

But this wasn’t enough for me, I needed to do online research. I wanted to tackle the issue from every angle possible. After talking to my wife and to other women suffering from both illnesses, I began my online studies.

So, is endometriosis worse than fibromyalgia? Here’s what I found online – absolutely nothing!

Worry Head gives you the answer!

When you type in the google search engine the question “Is endometriosis worse than fibromyalgia?” you will find no answer to it, at least no accurate one.

All you find is only statistics that don’t answer the question, statistics such as the one I wrote below which can be found on the very top of the first page of Google, and sources like this one.

Women with endometriosis are more than twice as likely to experience fibromyalgia as opposed to other women. 20% of them have more than one other disease, and up to 31% of those with more than one disease had also been diagnosed with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

But this doesn’t answer if endometriosis is worse than fibromyalgia, does it? No.

Sure, these statistics are great but it seems like the only accurate answer is the survey that I conducted when asking 184,000 women who suffer from endometriosis and fibromyalgia.

I made an effort even though I was met with a little bit of misunderstanding from two women saying that by asking “is endometriosis worse than fibromyalgia” I showed a lack of care and compassion. Hmm… 99,99% of other ladies said otherwise.

If you are interested in endometriosis, I wrote with the help of my wife “Endo-Tool, Endometriosis for Men” e-Book of which you can get a FREE 1st chapter containing 20 pages filled with lots of pure medical value. You will NOT regret it! And the rest of the book is focused on the relationship part.

Take a look, it’s FREE! It includes:

• What is endometriosis?
• What are the symptoms?
• What causes endometriosis?
• What does endometriosis look like?
• What are the stages?
• What are the types?
• What is adenomyosis and how is it related to endometriosis?
• Why do some women develop severe endo and others don’t?
• Does endometriosis cause infertility?
• How is endometriosis diagnosed?
• Do types and stages affect the treatment?
• Recurrence of endometriosis after excision surgery.

Does fibromyalgia make endometriosis worse?

Yes, my wife and 80 percent of the 184,000 women that I asked said that fibromyalgia makes endometriosis worse.

Fibromyalgia increases the discomfort that endometriosis causes, but also endometriosis symptoms such as irritable bowel syndrome, fatigue, and brain fog, but also worsen the anxiety and depression that endometriosis causes.

My wife and other women often find it difficult to distinguish between endometriosis pelvic pain and pelvic pain from fibromyalgia.

On that in a minute, firstly, I want to answer a similar question to the one above. So apart from fibromyalgia making endometriosis worse, can endometriosis cause full-body pain?

Since you are also interested in fibromyalgia, I wrote a “Fibromyalgia for Caring Partners” e-Book, in which 1st chapter is absolutely FREE!

Can endometriosis cause full-body pain?

Again, it does for my wife. Endometriosis makes her feel the pain that originates in the pelvic area go down her legs, up the ribcage, and all the way to the shoulder.

Women with endometriosis feel fatigued around the time of their period. Fatigue also has other symptoms like muscle or joint aches and pain. In addition, endometriosis can be also found on other organs, even the lungs or brain causing full-body pain.

Many women with endometriosis experience heavy painful periods but endometriosis lesions can impact the nerves surrounding the pelvis, or/and outside of it which can cause pain in the legs, hips, and buttocks.

So the answer is – yes, endometriosis can cause full-body pain. But what does fibromyalgia pelvic pain feel like, how do distinguish it from the pain of endometriosis?

What does fibromyalgia pelvic pain feel like?

Only 20% of people with fibromyalgia are men, so trying to figure out what does fibromyalgia pelvic pain feel like when someone like me does not have it can seem difficult to explain.

But I’ve asked, I’ve researched…

Fibromyalgia causes diffuse pain involving multiple muscle groups, including the pelvis. Women with fibromyalgia report pelvic floor symptoms and may experience pelvic pain, back, hips, legs, and even stomach pain. This tightness of the pelvic floor muscles can create tension on the organs causing bladder pain, and constipation.

Women with fibromyalgia experience pelvic pain and tenderness in their muscles. This pain is often felt for months or even years.

Relief can potentially come from trigger point injections but they should be done in along with pelvic floor physical therapy. The injections don’t last and have to be repeated.

Can fibromyalgia be mistaken for endometriosis?

When it comes to pain and the disease itself, yes, fibromyalgia can be mistaken for endometriosis.

But it shouldn’t be. Because even though both chronic conditions are considered invisible illnesses, endometriosis can be proven whereas fibromyalgia cannot.

Endometriosis can and should be physically cut out of the body, firstly, to be diagnosed, and secondly, to improve the symptoms and pain.

This cannot be done with fibromyalgia. You can not cut it out, it’s a neurological condition, which surprisingly a rheumatologist, not a neurologist diagnoses you with by excluding other possible chronic conditions.

Until all of this is done fibromyalgia can be mistaken for endometriosis, especially if you suffer from both conditions because the diagnosis for both takes years.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder that is notoriously difficult to diagnose. People have symptoms like muscle and joint pain as well as pelvic pain, so it can be mistaken for endometriosis.

Our story…

Co-occurrence of endometriosis and fibromyalgia is often associated with anxiety and depression. Many doctors say that it is all in their heads, and not believing them, they delay the diagnosis. They tried to gaslight my wife on many occasions.

Having both conditions is extremely hard, it severely impacted my wife’s life and led her to suicidal attempts. She also asked me to divorce her because she felt like a burden to me and wanted me to be happy, even if it meant being with someone else.

It showed me her love for me and I simply could walk away from this. I love her with my whole heart and I will always stand by her side.

Even though endometriosis took away the opportunity for us to have children, to become parents, to have a family, a healthy sex life, and impacted our marriage on many levels, we stick together and fight for happiness.

No chronic condition should become you! I hope I did a little bit of justice and answered the “Is endometriosis worse than fibromyalgia?” question. I hope that my survey helped you understand that 80 percent of women agreed that endometriosis was worse in their cases.

I know this can be a tricky subject for some people, Please feel free to comment below. I want to learn from you too!

Take care of one another!