QuestionHi,
I have been diagnosed with endometriosis. For years I suffered debilitating symptoms and finally they were able to narrow my problems down to endo...the suggestion i received was to try for a child before having any surgeries. they said in *some* cases pregnancy can stop the Endo symptoms permanently. He said not to get my hopes up. I ended up having two kids and the symptoms did appear to be gone after my first. After my second it was clear they were returning but thankfully slowly. My problem/question is this:
I had told my general practitioner I wanted to go see my OBGYN again and to have the surgery I needed. (He needed to re-request me as a patient as my OBGYN has a thing where if you don't see him for a year you're no longer considered his patient.) And my general doctor said this:
"Unless your symptoms are really bothering you there is no need to go and see him."
and I said,
"Can't endometriosis be dangerous if it goes on untreated too long?" and he said,
"NO. not at all. It may hurt badly but it stops once you hit menopause, so as long as you can tough out the pain there isn't really a real need to have any surgeries to remove it."
Well, I certainly questioned his advice, but after all, he is the doctor and I am only a silly nobody...but most recently I have been having major problems -undiagnosed. I have lower back pain, fatigue, abdominal pain, I have cysts that keep rupturing, pain that shoots into my legs, bladder pain, and oddly enough night sweats that smell funny - much like what I read happens with hypoglycemia, along with other symptoms of hypoglycemia. (all research I did on my own on the net). and I heard endo can cause hypoglycemia. I am being checked for bladder issues and stuff like that, but recently I have been wondering if all this is stemming from my endo....
Is what my doc said true that it's not a cause for concern if endo goes untreated? Because I think he's full of beans. According to a website I just read endo can cause all sorts of problems like cysts that rupture and cause the organs to stick together down there and cause pain when they rip apart, as well as a higher risk of things like fibromyalgia, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome and other stuff...
Should I tell my doc that endo can cause big problems and that he should refer me to my OBGYN? (My doctor has always been terrible but I'm in Canada and switching doctors isn't so easy)
Answeryou are both right.... most of the time, endometriosis is a major "quality of life" ruiner.... but occasionally, the endometriosis implants cause problems. There is no link to fibro, CFS, arthritis, but chronic pain certainly causes mood issues also.
Depending on how the endometriosis looks inside will dictate how well different treatments help...... when I am doing the eval/treatment, I tend to do the easiest treatments first.....
Birth control pills in an endometriosis regiment (taking 4 packs of pills every 3 months, skipping the last week of each pack. Sometimes that helps a lot.
Also, making sure that your vague symptoms are not related to some other disorder.... the fatigue could be anemia or hypothyroidism, etc.
A thorough base workup and consideration of other treatments is reasonable, getting an endometriosis evaluation by an OB is also reasonable, but I wouldn't jump to surgery until I have tried some other non-surg treatments, if appropriate.
I hope this helps.
