Colonoscopy or laparoscopy???

[karrijon]

Hi ladies, have been reading posts lately and am due in on 21st jan for lap and hysteroscopy. my question is whether you need to have a colonoscopy to get a diagnosis of endo on the bowel? if its on the bowel will they not see this in a laparoscopy? i am convinced i have endo on my bowel and am now panicking that they wont see it in a laparoscopy and i dont want surgery if its pointless. Help

[Lilly83]

Is this your first lap? it will only be a short one to look around, most people have a second one to treat it. My first lap was only an hour, I was told I had it on my bowel and everywhere else, stage 4, second lap I had a colonoscopy and a lap to treat it, this took 6 hours and they never said they were doing a colonoscopy beforehand, I mustn't of read the consent forms properly as first I knew was when I got a letter at home saying they had reinforced my bowel with sutures. It could be that its just a quick nosey around and they will so treatment next time if they find it, then look in your bowel properly xx

[stevieflp]

Hi - the weeks leading up to any kind of surgery can be an anxious time, having been there a few times myself, I can completely appreciate that and how all sorts of things go through your mind, helping to increase that anxiety.

A laparoscopy will certainly not be pointless and they would see endo on the bowel. What they may not be certain about from this is whether it was superficially on the surface of the bowel or whether it was more penetrating. A colonoscopy is good for helping to evidence/rule out penetrating endo, and any other bowel problems.

To try and ease your mind a bit, I was lucky enough to be under one of the top endo consultants and he generally sees the worst cases of endo. He told me that endo actually penetrating the bowel wall, in his experience, is a fairly rare occurrence. More commonly it is on the exterior surface and can more easily be treated (can cause bowel symptoms when superficial).

Good luck with the surgery on 21st and hope you will get good news. x x

[karrijon in reply to stevieflp]

thank you, that's reassuring x

[Riverchick in reply to stevieflp]

Hi stevieflp, I was just reading your reply to karrijon and wondered if you could help me with a query ? I had a colonoscopy yesterday as I've been having some blood mixed with my stools , dr tested sample and it showed high inflammation . I've also been suffering bouts of diarrhea when I'm always usually constipated and real discomfort/pain and pressure in vagina, rectum and perennial area . The dr who did the procedure said he could see no obvious cause of bleeding but took some biopsies anyway . My question is if I had superficial end on bowel rather than in bowel could that still cause blood in stool ?