Three Ways SIBO Can Contribute to Endo Symptoms Outside of Endo Belly and IBS

Anyway, the past few years I've obviously been bridging the gap between endometriosis, SIBO, and co-conditions, and lately I have been sharing a lot about the impact of SIBO on the endo belly and also on the common IBS symptoms that us endo folk suffer with.

And then I've also talked about the way that SIBO may increase the risk of endometriosis development and growth.

But it occurred to me when I was thinking about, oh, I've done 400 episodes, that my first full episode on SIBO was episode 90.

So for some of you, you may wonder why it's such a big deal in my mind for people with endo, because that episode and kind of episodes following that was really where I kind of knuckled down on the systemic effects of SIBO, and more recently I've been talking about the endo belly effects of SIBO.

So I wanted to share some of the ways that SIBO can affect our endo symptoms outside of the usual endo belly issues.

Now, like I said, I've done deeper dives onto this topic, on these topics individually in the past, so I've done, like, 10 reasons you have fatigue with endo and, and all of these different things.

So this is more of a recap episode, but I've linked to the studies in the show notes if you want to do further reading, and I'll put a couple of episodes in there as well.

Now, before we begin, I just want to remind you, if you're new here, that a recent study found 91.9% of endo participants were positive for SIBO or intestinal methanogen overgrowth, which was formerly known as methane SIBO.

49.9% were positive for both hydrogen and methane, and 34.8% were positive for hydrogen alone.

And 15.8% were positive for methane alone.

Additionally, a previous study found 80% of endo participants had SIBO, and I would say that out of the, those that I test personally, around 90% come back positive, somewhere in that region.

It's, it's very much what the studies have found.

I think I've only ever seen one or two negative test results, and I, I'm not even sure about that.

I, like, I feel, yeah, like, it, maybe it's even just one.

So how else could the presence of SIBO affect people with endometriosis? Number one is pelvic pain.

The IBS symptoms, such as pressure from bloating and abdominal cramping, firstly, they're painful in themselves, right? But they can result in nerves being more sensitive and the nervous system being in a heightened state of stress because you're in, you know, you're in pain, and it's stressing your, your system out, it's stressing your body out.

This can develop into something known as h- visceral hypersensitivity, where, where basically the nerves are hypersensitive to even normal activities in your intestine, and this hypersensitivity of the nerves can extend to the local pelvic area.

This heightened response, I actually explored in my episode with Christie Weipe, and it can turn up the volume on pain, so it can make that pelvic pain worse.

So if you want to listen to this episode with Christie Weipe, I've linked to that in the show notes.

Then we also have more inflammation.

So LPS, which we've explored before, can escape through the gut barrier in people who have SIBO, and this can cause more inflammation in the pelvic area and worsen pain, and I talk about this in a lot more detail in another episode on lipopolysaccharides, endometriosis, and SIBO, so I've linked to that in the show notes, but the short of it is that they escape into the pelvic area and cause more inflammation and pain.

And finally, you know that improving the pelvic floor is a major part of my work when it comes to managing endo, but the colon is part of the pelvic floor, so the issues like chronic constipation, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea that come from SIBO can all further contribute to pelvic floor dysfunction, which then impacts all of the organs, the nerves, and the muscles in the pelvis, including the bladder and vagina, contributing to pelvic pain and dysfunction, like pain with sex or pain with bowel movements or pain with urination and so on.

So for some people with SIBO and/or IBS, their endo symptoms, or what we label as endo symptoms, right, pain during sex, won't fully improve until IBS symptoms and issues are minimized because by minimizing those, this can allow the whole area to calm down, and in turn, can allow for nerves to calm down, the nervous system to calm down, and for muscles to relax.