Though I alluded to my chronic pain illness when I spoke of Less and when I left my longtime gym community, I haven’t shared explicitly about my endometriosis journey before.

I’m not delving all the way in to it today, either—I have a half baked post on this topic in my drafts that needs finishing. Rather, I want to quickly share with any googlers out there some new-to-me information that may help: cleaning could be making you sicker. Dust could be the answer to your debilitating pain. Hear me out.

I’ve been on this wild endometriosis journey for almost two years now. Wellness is important to me as a self care advocate, but even more so within these years because when I don’t take care of my body, my chronic pain flares up. I watch what I eat, how I move, and I’m careful to catch stress building up as it mounts so that the inflammation it causes won’t render me unable to walk.

Everyone needs self care, but I need self care.

October through December, I was struggling with relentless chronic pain from my condition. Talkin’ no days off for weeks at a time. Merely existing was hard. During that time, I reread a book I had read shortly after my diagnosis, Beating Endo.

During overview of notes I made throughout the pages, I brought my attention to something that faded from memory as I absorbed the many things that potentially exacerbate endometriosis symptoms:

57% of women with Endometriosis also suffer from allergies

I didn’t think I had any allergies…but I had congested ears for a few months at that point. I knew already to steer clear of gluten and diary, as they exacerbate my symptoms, but is that because they’re inflammatory foods or because I could be allergic to them?

Reactions to pollen, incidence of asthma, and presence of eczema were considerably higher among endo sufferers than the population as a whole

This was an aha moment during my second read. Could this be a key to my suffering?

Once allergies are addressed, the women’s Endometriosis symptoms improved

An allergic reaction is very inflammatory, and Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease. I’ve already tried to reduce inflammation as much as possible by avoiding inflammatory foods such as red and processed meats, cheese, fried foods, gluten and diary. Was there something else I was missing?

Allergy Testing

The first day, we did a skin prick test for about forty different potential allergens, dust mites, trees, pollens, and molds. There was one that felt so itchy—you can’t scratch, though—I was sure I found what was giving me trouble!

Nope. It was the control. One of the pricks was a straight-up histamine. Nothing came back.

I went back a week or so later for another panel of scratch tests and for a panel of intradermal skin tests. While the scratch test is a little poke, intradermal involves using a small needle to inject potential allergens into your skin.

There were 23 injections at the same time as 32 scratch tests. The scratch tests this go around were for foods, and I was expecting something to show up: flare ups have frequently happened after meals, to the point which on several occasions I’ve been in so much pain that I was afraid to eat.

The injections were repeats of some of those scratch items before. I settled down with a book and waited.

Ten minutes in, I had pain in my ovaries.

A flare was beginning and it pulled my attention from my book. I went through the usual questions:

Was it the way I was sitting? What was my workout this morning? Could it have been the adductions? What had I eaten?

…then I remembered I was pumped full of allergens. Nothing itched like the histamine did the other day and the scratch tests didn’t look like they were reacting. But my arms were splotchy, and I was beginning to feel awful.

The Results

I was still expecting a good to come back, so when the nurse told me that I was only allergic to dust and mold, I forgot those were two of my main concerns when I originally came in. I wanted a rematch with the foods.

Do they do intradermal allergy tests for foods?

Nope. Too dangerous. The next step regarding foods is an elimination diet.

I left the office. The flare up got worse. The allergic reaction got worse. My eyes were so itchy, my energy was zapped, and I was having pelvic pain. I was grumpy I did this to myself, took some Zyrtec and a few ibuprofen.

The Zyrtec Helped my Endometriosis Flare

This is huge! I was almost all the way down for the count prior to the antihistamine kicking in. To know that there’s an additional measure that can be taken when I’m having an Endometriosis flare up is great—I’ll do whatever it takes.

Even better, now that I know that I’m allergic to dust mites and mold, I know I can take extra precautions when cleaning—wearing an N95 for deep cleans and a cloth mask for regular dusting.

I’m allergic to cleaning

I’ll also note that my husband is allergic to most pollens and trees (+more), so he’s allergic to yard work. I guess we’re allergic to traditional gender roles 🙃