PCOS/Endometriosis/Hysterectomy

[beautiful1096.livejournal.com]

I just underwent a laproscopic hysteroscopy and have been diagnosed with PCOS and endometriosis. I have debilitating cramps all month long and my quality of life has just gotten increasingly worse. I have gone all of the traditional routes of treatment, Mirena IUD, birth control pills and nothing has worked. My OB/GYN is suggesting our next course of treatment would be a hysterectomy.

I was wondering if anyone has undergone alternative forms of treatment in lieu of undergoing a hysterectomy. I am 33 and the idea of loosing my uterus is terrifying at this moment.

TIA

Comments

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

These suggestions would be in addition to everything other folks have mentioned already:

Would your doctor be willing and able to refer you to a pelvic pain specialist (either M.D. or physical therapist) if there's one in your area? The PT I saw for mine at least gave me a lot of coping methods that do help reduce the pain. (For A LOT to a lot, but still.)

Speaking of pain, have you tried specific pain-relieving types of medications with your doctor (I see discussion of BC in your post, but no analgesics). If you haven't discussed prescription pain relievers and that's something you'd like to consider, it might be an additional option. If your OB-GYN is uncomfortable prescribing longer term pain medication (mine was), it might be worth asking for a referral to a pain clinic.

This is a longer shot, since its purpose is generally for heavy bleeding rather than pain, but would you be willing to try something like endometrial ablation (http://community.livejournal.com/vaginapagina/tag/endometrial%20ablation)? I mention this because when I was researching for my own ablation, studies showed that post-ablation, something like 2/3 - 3/4 of patients (depending on the specific method used) reported little or mild menstrual pain.

[beautiful1096.livejournal.com]

I have been prescribed 7.5MG of Hydrocodone. Most of the time it helps. My family practice MD prescribes it, my OB/GYN is vvery uncomfortable with any long term use of pain meds. We've discussed an endometrial ablation...my concern is that the pain I have is more from the PCOS and less from the endometriosis.

Did you have the ablation? Would you be willing to share your experience?

thank you so much.

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

I wrote up my experience with the ablation itself in this post (http://vaginapagina.livejournal.com/19166056.html). Ultimately, for me, while the ablation did decrease my flow some, it wasn't nearly as much as I'd hoped. (It also didn't decrease my pain, but given that the vast majority of my endometriosis is not adjacent to my uterus, I was never expecting the ablation to work for pain.)

That said, the procedure itself was reasonably easy -- having the wand go through the cervix felt about like an IUD insertion; once everything was inside, it just felt kind of full/bloated for a few minutes -- so I'm considering trying a second one (with the advice of my OBGYN) before putting hysterectomy back on my table of options.