Endometriosis - Los Angeles,CA

I'm sorry you're having difficulties. I have Endometriosis and PCOS and it took me three years to get pregnant. Once I stopped focusing on it (gave up so to speak) I got pregnant and it's been good ever since. I don't have any advice other than to try and take a vacation from getting pregnant. Good luck!

Are you looking for alternatives to help with endemetriosis. I have know other women to overcome it. God Bless! J.

Hi,

I think it is great that you already have a daughter. Which also means you area able to get pregnant, so hopefully it will happen again soon.

Here is my story with endo:
I was diagnosed with severe endo at an early age, long before I was married. I underwent a laparoscopy and the usual Lupron etc drugs but it came back very quickly just like your case (ovarian cycts). The doctors recommended an open surgery at that point. I think it helped them to clean the endo better. (This was a long time ago though, laparoscopic procedures may be better now, I am not sure.) The open surgery was done by a doctor with extensive experience in endo. Things were better after this surgery; the cycts did not come back. I got the usual Lupron treatment for several months and was on BCP for years. The doctors told me to have babies as soon as possible, as my chances would decrease with time but I was not even married yet!
When I got married, a few years later, I knew my chances of getting pregnant was low and talked with my hubby about it but he was not concerned :-) (he was not interested in having children immediately). When we finally decided to get pregnant and I was off BCP, I was worried that endo would come back. And I was not able to get pregnant (not very surprising). I had moved after marriage, and luckily found a wonderful doctor here. He performed a laparoscopy. I was sure he would find endo but no! I was endo free but had severe scar tissue from previous surgeries. He cleaned them off. But I was still not able to get pregnant after that. Started on clomid, did not work. Decided to try IVF after our vacation in Europe. I was off the drugs, and I got pregnant! I have an almost 2 year old boy now.
So from my experience, my advice would be to find a doctor who is an expert in endo, and have another surgery to clean the endo and any possible scar tissue, as good as possible. Then weigh your options (no drugs, clomid, IVF, etc) and decide what would work best for your family. The % chances of getting pregnant our doctor gave us was pretty slim with any option except for IVF, but still we were blessed with a son in a natural way (and this saved us quite a bit of $$ too :-)))... Maybe relaxing and having that vacation helped... :-)
I wish you all the best, endo-free years with your family!

PS. The endometriosis association has some good resources and info on endo. You may want to check them out:
http://www.endometriosisassn.org/

Did you start fertility drugs right after the Lupron/birth control treatment?

I don't know much about fertility treatments for people with endometriosis, but my doc recommended that I begin taking Clomid immediately after my 2nd surgery. The unfortunate thing about this option is that the hormone actually INCREASES the incidence of endometriosis. We decided that it wasn't worth it to be in pain while trying to enjoy ourselves ;)

I, too, am surprised that your endometriosis is growing so fast. The only thing I can think of is the possibility of those fertility drugs. It's my understanding that you would need to use those drugs during IVF, too.

I wish you and hubby the best!

ps - I do not envy your current situation. I remember how I felt during 2005 when all this went down, and it sucked. Difficulty starting our family ON TOP OF the physical pain? Ugh! Let me know if you ever want to talk.

So I've got something really different for you to try. One that is a little less invasive doesn't involve prescriptions, shots, things that could really mess up your body, either now or eventually. I know of several acupuncturists who have worked with women and fertility. Mine (I didn't see him for that) is under the flight pattern of John Wayne Airport and there is one that I know of in the West LA area. Have them work on what is blocked, not working right in your body, to open it up. Just a thought.

I don't have a ton of advice. I had endometriosis and two surgeries for it and had the lupron and took the pill for years.

I successfully conceived and have two boys about 2 years apart.

That being said, I worked with a midwife during my last pregnancy who deals with a lot of endo folks. Thought you might want to consider working with some alternative medicine people. You could certainly do the laparoscopy then consult (prior to the laparascopy) with someone regarding alternative treatments. I have heard from a lot of women in my town who did this and were very happy.

Certainly an option and a less pricey one than IVF.

I wish you much luck and health mama.

I have endometriosis and have had surgery for or related to it 4 times. I have had endometrium removed during 3 of those surgeries. It looks more like smooth clotted blood. Your post sounds like endometrium is a solid organ. It's not. It's the same thing that "bleeds" out when we have a period. It's soft and easily becomes more like a fluid. One cannot count the number of endometria because it's endometrium and a mass but not iindividual in nature.

The reason I say that is that I think it's possible to harvest eggs thru the endometrium. Or to harvest them with a laproscopic procedure. I don't know. I'm not familiar with the details of IVF. I'm just wondering if you might mean something different than endometrium.

The doctor could mean that you have two more masses of endometrium.

I was told that I could have as long as a year to conceive after my first surgery. I was not given any sort of medication. That was many years ago and I'm sure doctors know more about it now and have better treatments. I did not conceive but then I didn't consciously try to either.

It is my understanding that the reason that we have difficulty conceiving is that the endometrium blocks the fallopian tubes. I think the only accurate way to know if that is happening is with a laparoscopic exam. It seems logical that you could take the hormones to develop several eggs and that they could be removed laporascopically by removing the endometrium that's in the way.

I do hope that you will be able to conceive soon and not have to be concerned about the process.

Hi C.,
My name I T.. I have suffered with this pesky endometriosis for a very long time. My doctor did a laporascopy, but as he was in doing the persegure they had to stop because I hadd was to must. So they stiched me up. I then found out that I need fulblown surgery to get all the entrometriosis. So I went into the major surgery, after they were done they cut cists off my ovories, and blow out my tubes and have to stitch my uterouse back up because it had already fallen. This was a lot. After that I had to take these shots to put me though menopause for about 6 months. A month after my last shot we were now able to try to have a baby. He had 50/50 chance, but we were very blesses and we concieved. I know have a 6 year old healy boy.

I had pretty bad endo, fibroids, and polyps in my uterus. They told me I had unexplained infertility. I had the laparascopic procedure down. Was on Lupron to shrink the fibroids, etc. The endo grew back even worse. New fibroids grew in place of the removed ones. Yes, I had 2 open abdominal myomectomies to remove 6 fibroids. This all occured within a 4 year span.

Then I finally figured that there must be something more natural I could do to be more healthy and to combat the endo, fibroids, and polyps. I found a good Naturopath who put me on the right track towards balancing my hormones, cleansing out my organs, and altering my diet. When I stuck with the correct diet, my fibroids stopped growing and eventually started to shrink. Over the last 3 years we have been monitoring my fibroids. 5 weeks ago I had a laparascopic hysterectomy where they removed my uterus. My OB was amazed at what she saw. 2 of my fibroids were gone, and I had just a few little areas of endo. Nothing compared to what she saw when I had my c-section 3 years ago. So I am living proof that holistic ways and the right diet DO work.

I have other issues (Fibromyaglia) and low thyroid that I am constantly working on. Trust me, without Dr. Kohani and my supplements and diet, I would be in far worse shape than I am now. There were times that I could barely crawl out of bed because of the pain. Now I am a functioning FT Stay At Home Mom. Before I was a fully in pain, FT Stay At Home Mom.

www.revivamed.com My Integrative Specialists name is Dr. Roya Kohani

She was trained by Dr. Andrew Weil. You can google him. His site has a section for Women's Issues. Lots of good information about the Anti Inflammatory Diet (Which if you really look at it, is the diet that we are all supposed to be on whether you have health issues or not).

You can PM me if you have any questions.

S.

if you live in the LA area please let me know I know someone who might be able to help homeopathically

I just wanted to offer my sympathies. My best friend (of 27 years) is going thru something similar. Though unfortunately she has not yet had a child. She went years trying to get a Dr. to diagnose her ailments and when they finally did it was so bad she lost one ovary. In the last year she has had 3 endo surgeries, one of which they had to open her up with a c-section type incision due to the severity of the endo and how vast throughout her abdomen it had spread. She has gone thru cycles of Clomid and IUI... then an IVF cycle but unfortunately none of those things have worked. I know how heartbroken she is and how much she wants to have just one child.
I pray your situation is not as severe and that you will soon have luck conceiving.