Hi and welcome to this wonderful site. I, like Chrissy have had pain since
I started my period at 12. I don't think I was born with it though, at
least they never said I was. When they first discovered it by lap they just
didn't remove it all. If they would have, they wouldn't have found it like
they did on 2 other laps. They tried me on every drug known to man at the
time and nothing worked. Lupron had just come out at that time and my
doctor called the company who makes it and said he had a candidate for the
shots. They agreed to pay the $100 per shot to "test" it on me. After only
3 shots I had had enough. I was 28 and experiencing full blown menopause. I
was such a witch that I couldn't stand to be around me! The hot flashes,
night sweats and crabbiness were more than I or anyone around me could take.
When my doctor called them and told them it didn't work, they did not
believe him. It had always worked before they said. He told them again and
stopped the shots. He tried everything else for the next 4 years with no
results. He said the only other suggestion was for me to get pregnant and
have another child. My son was 7 and I was not yet remarried so I obviously
declined. He said that pregnancy stops the pain and the bleeding and gives
your insides time to heal. Sounds like a contradiction to me but what do I
know! I remarried and my husband and I agreed not to have any more
children. Our sons were both the same age. At the age of 32, after
exhausting all other options (or so it seemed), I decided to have a hys.
He did a total abdominal hys.-took everything. I did not want him to leave
my ovaries because I knew that they would cause all kinds of problems in the
future and I vowed that that would be the last time I ever had surgery.
Little did I know that the adhesions had something to say about that. (I
have since had 3 more laps) No one had ever mentioned adhesions to me and
that they could be causing all of the pain I had been having for all of
those years. While I guess overall I don't regret the hys., I do wish that
I had known all of the facts before I made my decision. I will be on
Estratest (hrt) for the rest of my life. I ran out of them 2 weeks ago for
2 days and had the hot flashes and night sweats immediately. It was
horrible. I am only 36 and NOT ready to deal with that on a daily basis.
Are you married? Do you want to have children? Ask your doctor what
his/her feelings are on pregnancy and endo. They told me the older I got,
the harder it would be to get pregnant with the endo. Your doctor might
have a totally different opinion on that. My doctor told me point blank
that pregnancy or hys. were my only 2 options. I am hoping for other women
that face this that there are other choices out there. Whatever your
decision is, know that we are all here to offer you support and love. We
have all been there (unfortunately) and really do understand. Glad you
found us! (Is your name Andy?)
Love Lisa