Can you suddenly get endometriosis? Painful periods in your 20s and 30s, plus the endometriosis age question, unpacked

I was always one of those girls whose period came and went unremarkably each month, like clockwork, since my early teens – until out of the blue, something changed.  

Aged 23, my bleeds suddenly became extremely painful and heavy. We’re talking gut-wrenching, bent-double, ‘sorry, I need to take another sick-day’ levels of cramping. Was this normal period pain, or something else? Why was I now sofa-bound, glued to my hot water bottle, and struggling with major leakage to boot? And why had I also started to experience chronic pelvic pain at other points in my cycle, too?

I didn’t just feel the pain physically. It started to seep into my day-to-day in other ways, from cancelling plans to feeling foggy at work, and second-guessing whether I was just being dramatic.

I distinctly remember punching Can you suddenly get endometriosis? into Google after a particularly unhelpful appointment with my healthcare provider. I’d had an ultrasound and blood tests come back “clear” and asked them whether there was an endometriosis age link. I’d had a period for 10 years – surely, if I had it, I would have known by now? 

But the doubt had started to creep in. Being fairly engaged with women’s health content online, I’d quietly suspected endometriosis for a while. The way the pain wrapped around my lower back and into my thighs, and the way I felt more and more like something wasn’t right sort of made sense. Still, I felt silly bringing it up, especially after being told again and again that nothing seemed “abnormal.”

Fast-forward to 2025, and we’re back partnering with the amazing team behind the MyReceptiva™ test – the only test that can reliably detect inflammation associated with endometriosis and provide answers for unexplained pain and infertility – to unpack these specific questions and more.

Read on for what I’ve learned through the process, along with expert perspective from the MyReceptiva™ team.

Can you suddenly get endometriosis?

The answer is no, you can’t suddenly get endometriosis overnight. But, you may potentially start noticing symptoms in a way that feels quite out of the blue, just like I did.

Endometriosis is a chronic, inflammatory condition where tissue similar to the lining inside your uterus (endometrium) begins to grow outside of the uterine cavity – commonly on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and elsewhere in the pelvis. Over time, this tissue can cause inflammation, scarring, and pain.

Because endometriosis is also progressive, it’s highly possible that symptoms can flare up or worsen over time, as you get older, experience hormonal changes, or go through stress or illness. 

Endometriosis age of onset – when does it usually start?

The age of onset for endometriosis symptoms can really vary.

Many of us start experiencing signs in our teens, often with our first periods. But symptoms can also stay mild or unnoticed for years – and then become more severe in your late 20s, 30s, or even 40s. It’s also completely possible to have endometriosis and be totally asymptomatic.  

In my case, it was like a switch flipped. Suddenly, everything felt different. But looking back, there were hints before. I’d normalized so much as “just being a woman”, inlcuding the fatigue, the occasional pain, the ovarian cysts that landed me in the ER, bloating I chalked up to IBS (which I’m still pretty sure I have, too).

It just took that dramatic shift in pain for me to even consider that something bigger might be going on.

That’s why the idea of a “typical” endometriosis age is misleading. Some are diagnosed as teens, and others only find out they have it when they start trying for a family, or experiencing chronic pelvic pain in adulthood, like I did. 

Endometriosis is complex and doesn’t follow one clear timeline, which is part of what makes it so tricky to diagnose. In fact, latest stats show that:

• 46% of women have to see more than 5 doctors before getting an accurate diagnosis
• the average wait time for an endometriosis diagnosis in US is still around 10 years

Can you get endometriosis in your 20s?

If you’re Googling can you get endometriosis in your 20s – the answer is yes, but it probably means that you’ve probably had endometriosis for years, just without knowing. 

Here are a few reasons endometriosis might become more noticeable in your 20s:

• Coming off hormonal birth control: Many forms of contraception can suppress symptoms, so you might not notice anything until you stop.
• Stress or illness: These can affect hormone levels and pain perception, making previously manageable symptoms feel worse.
• Other changes to your period: If your cycle becomes heavier or more irregular, it might bring underlying pain or inflammation to the surface.
• Increased awareness: As more of us share openly about our health, you might be recognizing symptoms you’d previously brushed off – something that definitely played a role in my own case. 

Can you get endometriosis later in life?

Yes – but, again, it’s more common for the condition to have been present, yet undiagnosed, for years.

You might not notice symptoms until your 30s, or even 40s, despite having had endometriosis all along. It’s also possible for symptoms to appear or worsen later in life, even if you were previously symptom-free.

Signs it could be endometriosis

As I’ve mentioned, not everyone with endometriosis experiences the same symptoms, and not all period pain means endometriosis. 

But there are a few signs worth investigating, including:

• painful and/or heavy periods 
• pain during bowel movements or urination, especially during menstruation
• painful sex, which may be experienced throughout the month
• pain in areas outside the pelvic and abdominal region, such as the lower back or thighs
• fatigue that persists even after restful sleep
• frequent urination which might get you up many times during the night
• persistent bloating, sometimes referred to as “endo belly”
• nausea and digestive issues like diarrhea during periods
• fertility issues

Whether any of these symptoms start out of nowhere or not, they’re worth taking seriously.

The bottom line? Advocate for your endometriosis symptoms – at any age

You can’t randomly get endometriosis on any one day – but your symptoms can start or intensify in your 20s or 30s or later in life. Maybe you’ve had mild signs for years without realizing, or maybe something’s changed recently to make the condition flare up. 

Either way, my key takeaway is it’s worth looking into.

Like I did, you might hear things like “come back when you want to have a family” or “some people just have bad periods” – but severe period pain and heavy bleeding is never something you should have to put up with.

The good news? There are ways to investigate it.

Get answers, sooner, with MyReceptiva™

If you suspect you have endometriosis, the first step is to talk to a healthcare provider who takes your experiences seriously. I personally started to keep a mini-record of what I was going through to bring to my doctor, including:

• a list of my symptoms 
• the days of my cycle symptoms occured
• how severe the pain was on a scale of 1-10
• anything that made my symptoms better or worse

For definitive answers, order a MyReceptiva™ test collection kit to take along to your provider, too. 

It’s the only test currently available that can detect endometriosis through a small biopsy of the uterine lining. And with a detection rate of over 90%, it can reliably predict whether you’d benefit from surgery to diagnose and treat endometriosis.  

Order your collection kit here – TRB readers get an exclusive $85 off with code TRB, to be applied at the end of the purchase process. 

Want to ask a question before ordering? Hop on a free 20-minute phone consult with one of their team.

Whether you’ve had pain for years or it’s only just started, it’s valid and worth advocating for – and no question is a silly one if it brings you a step closer to understanding what’s going on in your body.