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One of my friends has been recently gone through an endometriosis surgery, just like me, for a stage IV endometriosis. She is well now but she complaints of tiredness. This is how I remembered how I handled it, what I did to recover and that in so many Facebook group this was an usual question: “When will my tiredness go away?”

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Below you have my insight regarding tiredness after endometriosis surgery – causes, solutions and a (relative) answer to that question.

What are the causes of tiredness after endometriosis surgery?

Endometriosis patients know tiredness is an endometriosis symptom regardless of you having or not surgery. Yet, after this procedure, tiredness appears more often and more aggravated.

Keep in mind I am not a doctor, but only a journalist and an endometriosis patient so what will I say below are just my thoughts based on what I lived, read and talked to doctors during the years.

The causes of tiredness after surgery are many: your body just recovering from that trauma (most often), your body trying to heal, some imbalances you may have after surgery (for example, low haemoglobin), and rarely some imbalances of the endocrine system.

Here you can read my experience with tiredness (not related to surgery) that was associated with low iron.

Anyway, any doctor will tell you that it’s normal to feel tired after such surgery.

Tiredness after Endometriosis Surgery – what can you do

This part of the article is very much related to that answer you all are looking for “When it goes away this tiredness?” Because when you apply these things and listen to your body, you have higher chances of being active and good again.

1). Talk to your doctor about your blood tests

Normally, in the hospital they do a set of blood tests. From there, you should know if you have low calcium or low iron or if you are deficient of any other vitamin or mineral.
Ask your doctors about these tests and, if you felt tired all the time prior to the surgery, if you already confronted anaemia before, tell him.

Most cases, he will prescribe you iron if you have a low haemoglobin or a multivitamin product if he considers necessary, based on your blood tests/medical history.

2). Ask him if you can take a multivitamin supplement

Whether or not you are deficient of such substance, you could still feel very tired. If this is the case, ask your doctor directly about a multivitamin supplement or another supplement for tiredness (like one with essential amino acids).

3). Right after surgery, don’t keep the endometriosis diet, but pay attention to foods that could make tiredness worse

You know I am keep advocate of endometriosis diet but right after surgery (like 1-1.5 months) I think the body needs to recover and for that it could need some foods that are excluded from the “so called” endometriosis diet.

So, during this time, just have a healthy diet, with healthy nutritients, local, bio products etc., that’s the most important thing.

Yet, in this context of tiredness, please take into account there are foods which slow down our metabolism, which go down your energy level so they could make things worse.
Pastry (like bagels), high sugar cereals, coffee, fizzy drinks, fried foods - all these can make your tiredness after surgery worse.

4). Include in your daily diet, the foods that can raise your energy level

Fresh fruits and vegetables (seasonal, if possible), meat like chicken, fish, turkey, oats, all sort of nuts and seeds (not those estrogenic like flaxseed), water, bananas – all these are great for someone who wants to be more energetic and beat tiredness.

5). Sleep or rest when you feel tired!

You can do that, at least 2-3 weeks after surgery when you should be on the medical leave. Then it is best to listen to your body, to pay attention to what your body is signalling you and just to slow down.

Afterwards, you might find it hard to rest when you want when at work, but still, try to maintain a healthy sleep pattern and to rest when you are at home.

6). Reconfigure your priorities

Maybe you are a mother, a wife, maybe you have a stressful job and maybe you are a perfectionist. Yes, but you also have endometriosis and if you want to be healthy and never again to go to such surgery, you have to re-prioritize things.

I know, it might sound crazy now, but you might need to call your mother, mother-in-law, sister, cousin in low from time to time to stay with your child.

Here, in Romania, we have a saying “it needs a village to raise a child” – it is the absolute truth.

You might need to teach your husband to cook from time to time. You might use to delegate tasks at work and not to be available all the time.

Then, you will see the tiredness ness will go down too.

7). Drink plenty of water!

I know I have already said about water above, but it is very important to drink water in general, and more specific after surgery. It helps in eliminating the anaesthesia substances and this way might help with the energy level too.

Besides water opt for teas (dandelion root, ginger) and lemonades. I wouldn’t go for smoothies or natural juices, homemade or not.

8). If the tiredness does not go away in 2-3 months, talk to your family doctor!

If the tiredness is still there after 2-3 months and you feel things do not better, talk to your family doctor. You might need a different treatment (for example, for low iron), you might have thyroid problems etc.).

So…when will my tiredness after endometriosis surgery go away?

The real truth is.. it depends. If you do the above “tricks” it might go away sooner, but as I said above, a tiredness that extends over 2-3 months from the surgery is not ok and then you should seek medical advice.

How was my experience with tiredness after endometriosis surgery?

To be honest, tiredness was not my main concern after surgery. I had other “stuff” to think about, but I remember I slept or rested when I needed it, I ate what I thought it was ok for me and my endometriosis and I also took a bunch of supplements, a multivitamin included.

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Hope the above recommendations will be useful for you too and to find relieve soon after your endometriosis surgery.

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