Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) & HSD, calling all types!

The EDS Society has focused on genetics ... and I am so sorry to hear of your tough search. Another way of looking at the hEDS issues is to find working solutions that at least help. Try finding a physical therapist who has some understanding of our joint slippage and can give you information on how to keep the muscles surrounding the joints in place. Regenerative medicine doctors do prolotherapy that can tighten overworked and stretched ligaments connected to shipping joints. I am still looking for vein strengthening ideas. I have been taking billberry but don't think that is an answer. Any little bump into something solid causes blood brusing.
Hope you can find some working helps ....It matters!

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The EDS Society has focused on genetics ... and I am so sorry to hear of your tough search. Another way of looking at the hEDS issues is to find working solutions that at least help. Try finding a physical therapist who has some understanding of our joint slippage and can give you information on how to keep the muscles surrounding the joints in place. Regenerative medicine doctors do prolotherapy that can tighten overworked and stretched ligaments connected to shipping joints. I am still looking for vein strengthening ideas. I have been taking billberry but don't think that is an answer. Any little bump into something solid causes blood brusing.
Hope you can find some working helps ....It matters!

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Hello, I am a 22 year old South African Female.

I went to see an internist in September to figure out why I have chronic pain, a semi-nonfunctional bladder, flank pain, chronic fatigue, PCOS, constant headaches and joint pain and also why I haven't been able to eat lately without having a flareup. We went through my whole medical history and I got diagnosed with chronic gastritis and a little bit of atrophy in my GI tract (not severe). At the end of our consult, we talked a little about my hypermobility and vitamins to prevent arthritis. I asked her about EDS and she said I fit the profile but we should keep it in the back of our heads for now. I am going back to see her for a follow-up in February. Is there a way to keep track of all my symptoms for the next follow-up?

Here is my history in short:

I was a very bendy kid and often complained about growing pains in my hips and legs. I took dance lessons on and off due to severe fatigue and injuries. I developed stretchmarks on my skin when I was about 10 years old and got bullied for it....a lot! I also have eczema and stretchy skin. I was also an A-team high jump athlete in high school but had to stop since my ankles kept getting hurt. I was forced to take horse-riding lesson to try and improve my muscle tone, since my joints were unstable.

The chronic pain started in 2019. My parents often brushed it off and said it was attention seeking since my GP couldn't pick up anything in blood tests. He tested me for various diseases including cancer (multiple times) and said he doesn't know what is wrong with me (he probably also thinks that I'm attention seeking).

From 2019 - present, I got diagnosed with: Hypermobility, PCOS, a neurogenic bladder, chronic gastritis, Joint instability, (TMI) Chronic constipation. All of these diagnosis's were made by separate specialists. I feel like nobody is listening to me and to how severely this is affecting my life. I have a 3 year old son to raise and I feel like I'm in the body of a 100 year-old.

A list of my symptoms:

Joint Instability
Joint pain in various joints
flank pain
pelvic pain
neck pain
chronic headaches
sensitive skin
stretchy skin
easy scarring
a lot of allergies to random stuff
GI issues and constipation
Chronic Fatigue
Dizzy spells and fainting - especially when standing up
high resting heart rate
vertigo
Heat and Cold Intolerance

To all the hEDS patients here... what are your thoughts? Resources feel limited in South Africa...

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Hello, I almost never am logged in here anymore (in fact i had to reset my PW to login so I could reply to you) but mayo sent me an email recap of this week’s posts and I remember being in a very similar position to you in 2013. What is it that makes them think you have vascular EDS? Did you have vascular symptoms that lead them down this particular rabbit hole or are they just ruling out the one type of EDS they treat? Which Mayo are you seen at? (They are in various states and some have treatment for diseases others do not) Do you also have severe allergies?

Three main things I wanted to say: you will find your answers, you are not alone, and unless mayo has changed their policies since 2013 (let’s hope they do) they don’t acknowledge or treat anything BUT the type of EDS that is vascular. But you didn’t actually mention any symptoms that are vascular except perhaps pots. Are you on Facebook? There are MANY EDS support groups over on Facebook. You are less likely to run into EDS patients here since so few are treated in the mayo system. If you are in Phoenix, there is one doctor I was recommended to see who is a neuro muscular neurologist who actually does treat some EDS patients who are hypermobile type which doesn’t have a genetic test that recognizes it (yet) and there is another doctor outside the mayo system which is more highly recommended, something mayo doctors likely would not bother telling you. His name is Dr Saperstein. If you’re in a different mayo maybe you will have better luck than those of us who were in the Phoenix system did. Or maybe things have changed enough since 2013 or there is a new doctor there willing to treat people with non vascular EDS

A common issue for many people with EDS is to have “severe allergies” sometimes to unusual things or no IGE allergies and yet their body reacts as if allergic, including at times life threatening anaphylaxis to a variety of things. A common comorbidity with EDS is mast cell disorder of some type. Mast cells control over 250 cytokines in the body which control a variety of functions including but not limited to inflammation, phlegm production, asthma type symptoms, GI issues, rashes, bruising, neurological symptoms like migraines, slurred speech that comes and goes, etc. Very few doctors in mayo know how to test for let alone treat mast cell disorders but there are a few. Feel free to private message me if you would like to talk more about any of the above because I left the mayo system for better treatment plans that dug deeper into my EDS and what turned out to be Primary MCAS. I really don’t read this forum often at all (it’s been months if not years since my last login)

Hang in there, you will find answers. If they say you don’t have vascular EDS so we can’t treat you, or anything similar, You may need to find a doctor outside their system or even in a different state depending on where you are. But it’s doable as overwhelming and exhausting as the process can be, you can find respectful, professional, effective doctors who be A good fit for you and will do their best to help you figure out causes and treat your symptoms. At this time there isn’t a cure for EDS, so they mainly treat symptoms, and there are several comorbidities with it, POTS is one (like you mentioned having) Mast cell disorders of some sort are another, and there are others. There are also other causes of hypermobility than EDS, so if they rule that out there are other possibilities that need to be looked I ItP. It can take a while to find the right doctor for each person, but you can. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Best wishes,
Sean-Michael

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Hello my sister and niece have it. They think I have it. Where do you go to get diagnosed. I heard it is hereditary and runs on the mother's side. I don't know to much about this yet. I have other issues with my health and disabled. Can someone give me some direction on this. Thanks

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