Weird abdominal symptoms, any advice

[Chrinoo]

About 8 weeks ago I had a 24 hour stomach bug and ever since my stomach has been completely out of kilter and I'm now starting to worry it's something serious. My GP is not particularly interested as I have done stool samples and blood tests which have all come back normal. I am worried about either bowel cancer or ovarian cancer. My main symptoms are ongoing constipation (if I don't take movicol I can't really go - if I do take it then I go several times but obviously I don't want to take it long term) coupled with persistent pelvic pain which isn't particularly painful but is definitely there - feels like mild period pain. It often comes on throughout the day, I usually feel OK when I wake up.

GP is not worried about bowel cancer due to stool and blood tests being normal, and the fact I have no visible blood in stool, and she is not worried about ovarian cancer as I've had several TV ultrasounds recently due to miscarriages - most recent one was in April, and she says that would have picked up anything on my ovaries (I did not have a ca125 blood test). I know people will suggest endometriosis but aside from the pelvic pain I don't have any symptoms of that - no painful or heavy periods. And I'm 34 with one DC (6 years old now) so feel like it would have shown up before.

I don't have h pylori, I don't have IBS, I haven't noticed any correlation whatsoever with diet, I'm not particularly bloated. My GP is adamant it's all anxiety related which I'm prepared to accept as I do suffer badly with anxiety, but it doesn't usually manifest itself this way - and the symptoms are real, and they're making the anxiety worse.

Any advice/experience? Please no horror stories as I'm already anxious!

Oh and no weight loss and no fatigue.

Allergy? My daughter started with stomach pains.. had all bowel and gynecological tests ( she has PCOS and IBS all ruled out.. she was the same as you.. 3 weeks ago she went completely lactose free after sending off an hair sample.. tests came back high lactose Allergy.. now she's no pain or awful bowel problems.
Worth checking out.. she's 30 and never had this problem until last year.. yes you can develop an Allergy at any time..

Your gut bacteria is out of whack.

I feel like that would cause abdominal pain and this is very obviously pelvic pain - it's just like period pain really.

I might cut the movicol for a bit as I feel like that can't be helping.

I think the doctors you're seeing about this probably know more than us! Hope you feel better soon

Did you have a c section? Adhesions can cause problems like this.

I think things like intolerances and coeliac disease can be triggered by a stomach bug. I had very similar symptoms to you (for months and months), including the location of the pain. Stool test fine, tested negative for coeliac, but tried giving up dairy and wheat and after a couple of weeks all my symptoms were gone. Resumed eating then, symptoms returned. I then quit them again for nearly a year. Resumed eating them at Christmas and no issues since unless I have a LOT.

I suffer with stomach issues, usually for related and my pain is always low down and often like period pain.
Have you tried taking probiotics?

Yes I did, and I've consistently wondered if adhesions are the cause of my recurrent miscarriages (it was my fourth in April), but the NHS won't do any surgery to investigate and I can't afford to have it done privately.

That being said, if it was adhesions surely symptoms would have been ongoing before this? Usually my stomach is fairly robust.

I have tried probiotics yes, am currently taking them, but they don't seem to be helping particularly.

Just after my bug I had nausea and indigestion but that passed after about a week. It's only the constipation and period like pain which has persisted.

@Chrinoo I had 4 miscarriages also after my first DC (born via c section) when I gave birth to DC2 after 4 years, they had a terrible time cutting through all the adhesions and told me to make her my last child. I didn't even know I had any adhesions. They cause me a bit of bother now though, mostly period type pains.

I increasingly wonder if this is it, or part of it. To be honest I have had various on and off issues since the c section which make me wonder. There seems to be so little awareness around it, and I worry about complications for any future pregnancies (that I actually manage to hang on to, can't manage to get past 10 weeks).

It's mainly the ovarian cancer worrying me. I do hope my GP is right and anything like that would have been picked up in April - I had multiple scans at that point.

Probiotics do take quite a while to notice a difference. What ones are you taking?
Also, if you look at women's anatomy the large intestine is low down which would be uncomfortable when you're constipated.
I have ovarian cysts and that is quite a specific pain, usually on one side. Will the NHS look into why you are having the miscarriages at all?

Try doing this for a month- it's a gut health focused elimination diet when're you add in potential allergens/irritants gradually. If you do have an issue with wheat or dairy it should help you identify it and if not it will help rebuild the good bacteria after the bug.

www.amazon.co.uk/Plan-Diet-revolutionary-gut-healthy-weight/dp/1912023008

Link would help! 🤦‍♀️

If I eat white bread,especially cheap white bread I get the most horrendous pain. If feels really low like period pain. I get constipated and full of painful wind. I don't bloat much as it seems to sit deep but gosh it can knock me out for half a day. Worked out it's from bread that's risen too fast.ie cheap loaves. .

My diet is honestly very good, I cook all my own food from scratch and I don't really eat anything highly processed. I make my own sourdough for example and that's the only bread I eat, I don't eat cheap white bread or anything like that.

Not a DR but another possible cause is colon polyps or diverticula. Just watched friend with no prior symptoms develop constant constipation and discomfort, and occasional pain.
Rest of post may be a bit TMI for some.

Being male, anxiety wasn't suggested, instead poor diet was assumed no matter what he told them about having a notably good diet.

Kept being told to take Moviecol by GP, which would relieve things for a day or two, then back round the circle. Eventually granted a colonoscopy. A couple of little polys and one huge one in the top part of the colon found.
It was blocking the colon and even after actual movieprep which he thought had totally cleared him out, and fasting, there was still material trapped behind it.
Polyp's been removed but another colonoscopy is needed as a result of not being able to view all of the colon despite the movieprep.

I'm told 0 chance of colonoscopy unless red flag symptoms like blood in stool or weight loss. Obviously I don't want to have something done unnecessarily but clearly something is going on there.