Potential diagnosis vs pcos and accessing private care

[molliepink1]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and have found reading the posts extremely helpful as someone who is going through the process of getting an endo diagnosis. I am a bit nervous to post but wondered if anyone had advice on my current situation- thanks in advance!

I am 27 and have been having constant pelvic pain since Nov last year, in both my hips and shooting pains down my legs, often both sides but usually more in the left side. I have been to my GP numerous times about this since then. She has been very helpful but unfortunately due to various NHS issues progress has been very slow. I was referred for an ultrasound in Dec but it got cancelled twice due to covid, so I paid to have a private ultrasound to speed up the process. The scan showed mild-severe polycystic ovaries. This was something that I already knew I had and that I have had investigations for in previous years, but I was always told that I have the morphology but not the full syndrome. This was found to be the case this time too, as my GP did blood tests and did not find anything that showed the full syndrome. I have also never had these types of pains before, and am certain that this is different to the pcos symptoms I had before.

At this point I asked my GP to refer me for private care, as I have recently got cover from Vitality through my partner's work. This claim got rejected, due to pcos being a chronic condition and something that I have been seen for before (previously under bupa).

Anyway, fast forward to now, I have been on the pill and metformin for the last 2 months to see if this would treat the symptoms and if anything they have got worse. I saw a new gp a few weeks ago and they have now said that they think it is definitely endometriosis that I have, for which they have now referred me on the nhs. However I have been told that it might be up to an 18 week wait just to get an nhs appointment. I have asked my gp if she will redo the claim to my private insurer, to explain that she now thinks it is endo, but she has said that she is not comfortable doing this.

I feel so alone in this process, it is causing me such anxiety and depressive mood and is hugely affecting me emotionally and with being able to go about my everyday life. I just wondered if anyone had had any experience with getting private cover for endo (and differentiating it from pcos), or waiting via nhs? So unsure what to do at this point, but all I know is that the pain is getting worse everyday...

Thanks again.