Re: I'm not quite sure if I have endo or not....advice would be appreciated
From: Laura (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Mon Sep 25 11:49:34 2006
Julie,
Thank you for responding. Your experience with endo sounds very much
like what I am experiencing. I guess that settles it for me. I just
wasn't sure if when women with endo had pain, that pain included sudden
spasms.
Yes the first doctor I had was awful (he was a Middle Eastern man, this
probably accounted at least in part for his disrespectful attitude
towards women). But my OBGYN now is a young female, soft spoken and she
actually smiles at me. I like her a lot and would feel comfortable
having another lap with her if it comes to that in the future.
In the meantime I think I'm going to have to go back on the Pill.
Thanks again,
Laura
At Mon, 25 Sep 2006, Julie wrote:
>
>Laura,
>
>your symptoms do look like endo. 99%. The reason ur doctor didn't see
>it might be be possible that ur endo is in starting stages when the
>lesions are not so widespread and not every doc might be able to make it
>out. You need a very good endo specialist and not a doctor who yells at
>you. doctors are not supposed to yell. I am so sorry u had go through
>such a doc. I also have pains/spasms like u have described and more
>when i walk, move, go to bathroom and they are terrible during the first
>2 days of period, especially during bm. I had lap done and stage 4 endo
>was found. However pain doesn't correlate with how severe endo u might
>be having. You might have very little endo and very severe pain.
>I would see a good endo specialist..to rule out endo at least. To me it
>looks like endo since the pain is mostly with the periods and that it
>was resolved during pregnancy.
>
>At Mon, 25 Sep 2006, Laura wrote:
>>
>>Hello ladies,
>>I hope you don't mind if I quickly run through my situation, because
>>although I am in a lot of pain lately, I'm not sure if I have endo or
>>not so I'm not sure what to do about it.
>>
>>About 3 years ago I was having really awful spasms in my rectum during
>>my periods. At first the problem was aggravated by using tampons, and
>>when I stopped using them it went away, but after a few months the pain
>>got worse again without tampons. I went to my doctor and he gave me
>>Vioxx, which helped a bit but not much. After a bit of research online
>>I thought maybe I had endo, so I went back to my doctor and he suggested
>>a laparascopy. I agreed.
>>
>>The lap showed nothing, or at least my doctor found nothing. After the
>>surgery I was in really bad pain, because it was time for my period, but
>>when I went back to my doctor to get my stitches removed he yelled at me
>>that it's impossible to have pain because he had scraped the inside of
>>my uterus, so how can I have a period? I asked him then what could be
>>causing the pain if it's not endo and obviously he didn't know because
>>he just yelled at me some more until I cried.
>>
>>Needless to say I never went back to that doctor. I wouldn't have even
>>if he hadn't treated me like that, since he left huge awful scars from
>>the lap.
>>
>>So I continued to live in pain, not sure what was wrong with me. About
>>4 months after the lap (this was early 2004) I got pregnant. For the
>>duration of my pregnancy, I had no pain. This reinforced in my mind
>>that I must have had endo and not some other, non-gynelogical problem
>>with my bowels.
>>
>>After my pregnancy however, with my postnatal bleeding, the pain came
>>back with a vengeance. I talked to my new doctor (a female) about it,
>>and she said she couldn't think of anything else that could cause the
>>pain but endo, my other doctor must have missed it. She prescribed
>>Yasmin bcp which I was on for a year. These pills helped a lot, I had
>>almost no pain for the time I was on them and my periods got much
>>lighter.
>>
>>However when my prescription ran out, I didn't get more because my
>>husband was (and still is!) out of work and we didn't have the money to
>>pay for them. I thought maybe I'll be fine. Well, I was wrong. Over
>>the last few months the pain has gotten worse every period, and my
>>periods have become much heavier too.
>>
>>Yesterday the pain was very severe. But this is why I'm not sure if
>>it's endo or not: The pain I experience isn't exactly pain, but more
>>like really painful muscle spasms. The muscles in my rectum spasm, and
>>now the muscles all across the bottom of my abdomen spasm at the same
>>time too. It's a very strong spasm that lasts for maybe 15 seconds--it
>>can be brought on by various things, bending over, moving too fast,
>>having to go to the bathroom. The only way I can control the spasms at
>>all is by deep breathing like the kind used in childbirth.
>>
>>Is this kind of painful spasm consistent with endometriosis? Or might I
>>have some other kind of condition? I don't usually have these spasms
>>when I'm not on my period (although sometimes I do). They mostly only
>>happen during my period, they are very painful, but yet I don't have
>>very bad menstrual cramps, I know what those are and this is much
>>different.
>>
>>All the info I can find on the Internet just says endo causes pain, it
>>doesn't specify what kind of pain, hence my confusion.
>>
>>Any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
>>Laura
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