Getting somewhere!

[Cocohoney1]

Well I have walked out of the doctors feeling positive the first time in a long time after sending me for scans, blood tests and internal swabs that all came back clear apart from low iron I have finally got my doc to refer me to a gynaecologist it's funny I'm now doubting if I need one after all this pushing for it!

He has given me the pill to start taking for three months but having sat and read the side effects I'm really not sure I want to its Ethinylestradiol + levonorgestrel I have always avoided the pill ever since being a teenager ( I'm 40 this year) and being told to go on it for my periods the doc asked if I was prone to putting on weight and that scared me off it for life. I really don't know if I should take it or not it's a hard decision.

I'm not sure how long I will be waiting for my referral but at least feel I'm one more step along the road.

Michelle x

[Impatient]

I'm in the middle aged bracket too - and like you was brought up with negative thoughts on being on the pill........ I have completely changed my opinion.

I did occasionally try different pills to stop periods or delay them but never took them long term. But at that time I had no idea I had endo, or how bad it was or would get. If I had known then what I know now, I'd have been on them from day 1.

I now have the mirena coil and it has quite honestly transformed my life.

We do become martyrs to the monthly cycle - but when suddenly you are getting back an extra week at least, every month of the year - free of periods and all that faff- it is liberating.

My periods were over running to two weeks a month - so in my case half a year every year was getting wasted in pain and mess. So this little mirena has given me back 6 months a year of me time.

These days there are so many BC Pills to try, if one doesn't suit you side effects wise there are plenty of different ones to try out. Each has its own menu of ingredients and it may just take a slight adjustment in the formula to suit you much better. So don't fret about changing and trialling differnt ones. If you are found to have endo - the only ones to avoid are any that contain Oestrogen. Oestrogen is the enemy of endo, endo loves it , we hate endo therefore we have to hate oestrogen too.

If your baby making days are over - then I wholeheartedly recommend the mirena coil as a long lasting period stopper.

Best time to get it installed is when you have a general anaesthetic -so something to seriously consider if you get offered a laparoscopy to diagnose endo at your gynae appointment , whether endo is found or not, the mirena can be put in.

It takes 4-6 months of settling in which can cause tweeks and twinges of cramp from time to time but not on the scale of period pain. Then when it is working you get up to 5 years period free, no expense of towels, tampons, extra laundry, extra loo paper, planning all your ctivities around the time of the month, worrying when you'll be on, how long for, carrying extra supplies with you everywhere incase of accidents, taking pain killers for days on end. None of that - all gone. It even stops PMT. I even lost weight on it - nearly two stone, but initially the weight did creep up, but without dieting or changing my life at all it has dropped off and continues downwards (an unexpected bonus.)

And if you do not like hormones - it is only 20% of the strength of BC Pills, but because it is right in the uterus it works at close range and doesn't need to be so strong to travel all through the body from the digestive system to reach the ovaries.

I am a huge fan as you may have gathered and my god i wish the miracle wee gadget had been around when I was a teen onwards. Very glad to have it in now though.

It doesn't suit everyone but is generally easy to have pulled out by the strings at your local nurses clinic if you don't want to carry on with it.

In the meantime try out the back to back pills. If you do have endo, anything that reduces or stops the number of periods you have is all to the good.

[Cocohoney1]

Thank you I found your reply really helpful I went to bed thinking about it then woke up and thought I would give it a go but I've just come on my period should I now wait or just carry on and take it I am so clueless with it all x