ENDO Messages for June, 2007: Re: Anxiety about infertility...

Re: Anxiety about infertility...

From: D (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Tue Jun 19 21:38:06 2007

Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
Next message: Angie: "Re: colonoscopy"
Previous message: D: "Re: colonoscopy"
In reply to: Manda: "Re: Anxiety about infertility..."

Most women who have endo are able to have children! It is by no means a given that you'll even have trouble getting pregnant, and if you do there are things that can help.

Finding a really good doctor who can thoroughly excise your endo is the first thing I'd suggest. I think I remember that you had a lap recently, but it sounds as if you aren't sure they got it all? There are endo specialists who get very good results with surgery, but there are not very many of them. Any type of burning the disease, whether with laser, coagulation, etc. is likely to result in incomplete removal - they often can't get all the endo out by burning it. The doctors who get the best results cut (excise) the lesions - the best of them have recurrence rates are below 20% five years after surgery. (It's always okay to ask your doctor what is their patients' rate of endo recurring after surgery! If they can't/won't answer, I'd find another doctor.)

Unfortunately, there aren't many doctors who do excision surgery very well. There's a link to the endodocs yahoo group at the bottom of this - requires registration, but it's a good place to look for an endo specialist. You can ask here, too.

Some doctors still tell women that pregnancy will make endo go away, but that isn't always the case. Some women find it makes it better, but others never had any endo pain until they got pregnant!

About having a baby... I also think you need to consider that endo is a progressive disease and realistically it's probably going to keep getting worse unless it's surgically removed. Hormonal treatments or pregnancy may slow it down for a while, but right now the only thing known that gets rid of the disease is surgically removing it. What would it be like to have a child to care for when you are possibly even more ill and have even less energy than you do now? Especially with a partner who isn't sure he wants a child - how much help can you count on getting from him? I'm sorry to be rather harsh about it, but I don't think that's the situation you want to choose for yourself and your child, and I think it's much too soon for you to be so worried about this! My best advice is probably not going to be the most popular, but try to concentrate on your own health first - find a specialist if necessary, and build a relationship with someone who knows they want to have children! You really are still young, and at this point it is much more likely that you will have children than not!

Good luck!

At Tue, 19 Jun 2007, Manda wrote: >
>thank you for your experience. I find it hard having to work with young
>infants everyday but i may never be unable to hold one of my own. My
>partner is still undecided if he wants kids so i stuck between a rock
>and a hard place. Anybody got any suggestions for me. ive got an
>appointment with my gyn beginning of July to discuss post lap so will
>ask him heaps of questions. Anybody else got any experiences?

-- Find an endo specialist in the ERC's EndoDocs group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndoDocs/

Try an excellent endo support group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/erc/

Info on pain management: http://www.painfoundation.org/

Next message: Angie: "Re: colonoscopy"
Previous message: D: "Re: colonoscopy"
In reply to: Manda: "Re: Anxiety about infertility..."

Women's Insurance Checklist from Auto Insurance Quote

use when must restrict search to only the endometriosis forum...
Enter search keywords:
	Returns per screen: Require all keywords: