r/cfs•
just-a-tired-soul

Anyone got experience starting birth control/IUD to treat endometriosis?

Advice

TLDR: anyone got some endo experience, advice? What have possibly helped? Pain management?

I knew my endo was going to come for me one day. This year seems to be it.

I'm in a PEM crash from my last period, and my current one has been even worse. The painkillers (paracetamol and ibuprofen) that worked for years seems to have stopped working. (naproxen does nothing for me)

It feels like I'm not gonna escape the PEM crash ever if this continues. But I'm so scared of trying hormones, that they are gonna make me worse too.

A friend of mine got suicidal from trying birth control, it was really scary to see it change someone so drastically. And another friend had the most horrible experience getting the IUD in place. Like she screamed and had to be held down by several nurses, and was sent home with paracetamol only to treat the pain.

I know birth control worls fine or even great for some people but it's just such high stakes with CFS.

I'm housebound but it feels like bedbound is just one more severe crash away. Mentally I'm so fucked, I can barely watch any screens during the day, and can only stand very limited amounts of audio. I'm only able to write here today because of my current period cramps keeping me up...

Looking for any advice on endo treatment, pain management and so on.

Posted Mar 6, 2026, 8:43 PM UTC

621
Loading comments…