Endometriosis can affect your physical health and emotional wellbeing. It may also impact your relationships and sexual desire. It’s important to remember you’re not alone. It can be hard to talk about endometriosis and how it affects you. But when people in your life understand the condition, they are better able to support you through your ups and downs.
On this page we explain how a healthy lifestyle and help from trained health professionals can help you manage endometriosis symptoms.
Endometriosis and physical health
Endometriosis and emotional wellbeing
Endometriosis, relationships and sex
Related resources
A healthy lifestyle may not reduce the severity of your endometriosis, but it is important to be as healthy as possible when managing this condition.
Physical activity helps many women with endometriosis. It can help by:
It can also improve constipation, bloating and bowel pain, and protect against other diseases and health issues, for example, cancer, diabetes and heart disease).
Sometimes physical activity can have side effects, for example, a pain flare, so it’s important to break your exercise into small sessions throughout the day or try different types of activity like walking or yoga. Aim to do 20 to 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week. If you haven’t done any exercise for a while, ease into your exercise program and gradually build up your fitness levels.
Read our Activity pacing for persistent pelvic pain fact sheet for more information.
In this video, Dr Pav Nanayakkara, gynaecologist and advanced laparoscopic surgeon at Jean Hailes Clinics, guides you through some yoga poses for period pain relief.
Quality sleep will help your immune system to function at its best. Try to:
While there is no direct evidence that nutrition influences endometriosis, a healthy diet is important for overall wellbeing. This includes lots of plant-based foods, for example, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, as well as fish. Increasing your intake of omega-3 fats, for example by eating more oily fish, may help with pain relief.
Getting enough magnesium, vitamins B1 and B6, and consuming a low-fat vegetarian diet may also help reduce pain.
If you experience bowel symptoms, it’s helpful to learn which foods trigger these symptoms. Try keeping a food diary to track how your diet affects you. If you find you are sensitive to certain food types, ask your doctor to refer you to a dietitian with experience in this area.
Living with endometriosis can affect your emotional wellbeing, especially if you experience pain. Depending on your diagnosis and situation, you may have different emotions, ranging from shock and anger to sadness and depression.
It takes an average of 7 years to get a diagnosis of endometriosis. This is a long time to suffer without knowing the cause or getting the right treatment.
Your feelings may vary depending on:
Body image is the way you think and feel about your body.
Some women with endometriosis have a negative body image due to physical symptoms such as pain, fatigue, bloating, painful sex, irregular periods and bladder and bowel problems.
If your body image is negatively affecting your emotional wellbeing, seek help from a counsellor or psychologist with experience in endometriosis and body image.
Visit the Butterfly Foundation for more information about body image.
Endometriosis symptoms can be unpredictable and distressing. You might also feel stressed and frustrated before diagnosis, especially if you’ve been misdiagnosed or your symptoms have been dismissed. It’s important to find a doctor who listens and investigates your concerns.
Too much stress, particularly over a long period of time, can take its toll on your health and wellbeing. For example, ongoing stress can cause physical reactions such as nausea, diarrhoea, overeating or undereating.
It’s important to understand what is causing you stress and find ways to manage it. For example:
If you have endometriosis, you may experience anxiety. Anxiety involves extreme feelings of fear and worry. Physical symptoms might include a racing heart, rapid breathing and sweating. Psychological symptoms can include worry, over-thinking things and avoiding situations. Anxiety can lead to a loss of confidence and avoidance of people and places.
Some women with endometriosis get depression. Depression is more than feeling sad. It involves constant and intense negative thoughts and feelings. If you have depression, you might:
It’s important to ask for help if endometriosis affects your mental and emotional wellbeing. Your doctor can write a referral for you to see a psychologist or counsellor. You can get a Medicare rebate for a set number of sessions with psychologists and allied health professionals.
It might help to join a local support group so you can talk to other women going through a similar experience. Visit the Endometriosis Australia website to find a support group near you.
Chronic pain can impact different relationships in your life.
Lifestyle factors can affect how you experience pain. For example, stress and poor sleep can make the pain feel worse.
It’s common for women with chronic pain to have a lowered sex drive (libido). Sexual drive varies for each person, it and can be influenced by different factors. For example, your health, stress levels, mood and relationships.
Many women with endometriosis experience painful sex. This pain is often deep in the vagina, but it can also be near the vaginal entrance and in the lower tummy. Pain with sex can come from endometriosis implants, an overactive pain system and overactive muscles, including pelvic floor muscles.
When you experience pain, it can be hard to relax your pelvic floor muscles. This can cause more pain, which may reduce your sex drive.
If you experience painful sex, don’t just put up with it. The good news is, there are many practical things you can do to improve your sexual experience.
A qualified pelvic floor physiotherapist can teach you how to relax your pelvic floor muscles. They can also help with different methods to relieve pain and manage persistent pain.
If you are in a relationship, it’s important for you and your partner to discuss your feelings and seek help from a psychologist or relationship counsellor if needed. And remember, you can enjoy intimacy in many ways other than sexual intercourse.
Learn more about how chronic pain affects relationships.
Read this story about a woman’s experience with endometriosis and vaginismus.
This content has been reviewed by a group of medical subject matter experts, in accordance with Jean Hailes policy.
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