When I see the specialist what should I expect?

[emmary]

I asked my doctor if they would give me a pelvic exam, she said that they would only do that if I was comfortable with it. Well, I'm not! But is that what they do? I'm just not sure what to expect from the appointment. Will we just talk about my symptoms, or do they want to see if they can feel anything? If they think it might be endo will that lead to an appointment for surgery? I'm just nervous right now, even though I'm having trouble getting a referral let alone when the appointment actually comes around

[Bekah27]

When I went to see a specialist he was really lovely, he just got me to walk through all my symptoms. He did have a feel of my abdomen but it wasn't invasive and they had a nurse come in so it wasn't unsupervised...my husband was also there in the room with me for the appointment so it was a full house! Anyway, when I mentioned painful sex and pain going to the loo his ears pricked up as these are tell tale endo signs, so just make sure you give them all the details. After that he gave me info about the lapreroscapy and rearranged to see me in a few weeks to just double check symptoms hadn't gone away (I had suspected appendicitis at the time...turns out was just endo pain!) then when I saw him next he scheduled in the lap.

Just make sure to give them all the symptoms, no matter how insignificant you think they are, write them down so you don't forget you have nothing to worry about and you can always take someone along with you.

[emmary in reply to Bekah27]

Thanks Bekah, you're right, I did think that pain going to the loo was insignificant! Finally I mentioned it to my mum, she was astonished and said "why on earth didn't you mention that before! Thats the most important information." It would've saved us a lot of unnecessary drs appointments.

Haha I rushed into the drs with suspected appendicitis as well!

Thanks for the info, I'll try not to worry about it.

[Tboag in reply to emmary]

Hi, good advice, above, when I went for my first endo specialist appointment, I wrote it all down and gave it to my consultant he browsed through it and then asked questions from it, I'm terrible at walking out then thinking of 10 things I Fogot to say,

He did a internal exam and felt my belly ect, he was lovely, and yes a nurse was present and my hubby was there, be as honest as you can exspecialy about it hurting during sex, the doc said to my husband how often are you having sex and we both said at the same time, we're not,

In exactly the same tone, it was quite funny. The doctor asked me if I now about endo and adenomyosisand I said yes I've been researching, and he said we could try to see if the menapause would stop the pains or go straight in for a lap, I said lap and that was th 12th Han, I've got my lap on Saturday and can't wait, now just worried that nothing will be found,

Good luck with your appointment,

Stay calm and start writing, xxxx

[Emma-louise]

Hey

I was really worried for my internal exam too, and embarrased as i had 2 males in with me for my exam (my gynae and a student), but honestly theyve seen it all before. He was actually very gentle, and made sure i was comfortable, then (this sounds so wrong...) pushed down on my stomach whilst he was checking internally, and was asking where i had pain etc.

They will also go through your symptoms too - i didnt think that having pain in my bottom when going to the loo was even slightly related so missed that out, even after my lap! I took in my diary which i use to keep track of my pain and periods and other symptoms, that definitely helped. They'll run through all your options, they won't necessarily go straight for a lap. After my initial appointment they then sent me off to have an internal and external ultrasound, and then i chose to have a lap as i just wanted a definitive answer. Just make sure your comfortable with whats happening, as if not there will be an alternative you can try!

Good luck

Emma Xx