Endo queries all new to me

[Chloe_neal]

Hey guys I’ve seen the support in here is amazing!

I’m in Colchester Essex!

So for the past 4 years I would have a period that would last 9months straight every day heavy bleeding and the pains would be leaving me bed bound for some Days! Going to work can be a task too or even to get out of bed. Hot water bottles everyday to help with the pain! Tramadol and codamols are not helping the pain and nothing is helping the bleeding too. Gyne said suspected endometriosis so I’m waiting for a laparoscopy waiting a whole year as they didn’t put my referral forward as they “forgot”. Still don’t have a date.

The pain would spread from my pelvic, back and into my groins too. From how intense the pain is I get sick from it . I struggle to pass stools aswell as urinating quite a lot a day!

Does this sound like endometriosis?

What would I be expecting during and after my laparoscopy?

What should I be asking for?

Recovery time?

What can I do up until my surgery?

Thank you!

[Blue_Sky12]

Hi Chloe, sorry to hear you’ve had such a rough time! Your symptoms definitely sound like endo to me, although I’m not medically qualified! I’m still waiting for my referral but just wanted to say hi because I’m referred to Ipswich which is in the same trust as Colchester hospital. Colchester has a BSGE specialist endometriosis centre which should mean you’re in very good hands there!

[Chloe_neal in reply to Blue_Sky12]

Hey! How long have you been waiting for your referral? I didn’t know that! Thank you I appreciate it!

[Blue_Sky12 in reply to Chloe_neal]

Currently 5 months but I’ve been told it’ll be a minimum of 9! And it obviously took quite a while of pushing to get the referral in the first place! Apparently I was wrong about the BGSE centre, sorry! There’s a comment below who has better info than I gave. x

[Lindle]

Unfortunately having a BSGE centre in a hospital doesn't mean that is where you will be seen. The centers are in tertiary care (a step above normal gynaecology which is in secondary care). Specialist centres are for highly specialised cases that means you must have evidence of severe disease or have been bounced back and forth between gynaecologists in secondary care with no success after treatment there. You will be referred to secondary care and the most important thing to know is that it must only be a gynaecologist with a special interest in endo who treats you, which means having done additional endo training.

[Blue_Sky12 in reply to Lindle]

Oh thank you, that’s helpful to know. Are you referred into the BSGE centre from you primary care GP or from gynaecology? I have suspected bowel, bladder and kidney involvement but currently waiting for my initial referral to general gynaecology. I assumed that having a centre in the hospital there would probably be some gynaecology staff who had special interest within the main gynaecology department but I don’t really know what I was basing that on!