Hi,
I have recently received a diagnosis of "suspected endometriosis" by my GP and am in the process of figuring everything out.
I'm currently 31 and had been on the combined pill since I was 18. I got fed up with how the pills made me feel so I decided to go hormone free and got the copper coil fitted 18 months ago to prevent pregnancy.
In the last 18 months my periods got worse which was to be expected with the copper coil but what I didn't expect was severe ovulation pain which would last days, awful pain when going to the toilet, 'flooding' when on my period and pain in the days after my period.
It got to the point where I felt I had no choice but to visit my GP. Fortunately, she listened to all my symptoms and has referred me to gynae at the hospital to get a specialist opinion. She's pretty convinced that my copper coil isn't the cause of the problem as my heavy bleeding and pain was present whilst I was on the combined pill.
She did say that it might be the case that the referral comes back advising to try hormonal treatments first. I'm not keen on the idea of doing hormones again but I'm willing to give it a go if it would make the pain and bleeding more managable.
My options at the moment are:
Depo Injection - My GP recommends this but I'm not so sure after reading up on the side effects and I don't like the idea of having the hormones in my system for at least 12 weeks if they don't agree with me!
Mirena coil - Again I'm not sure on the side effects on this one, I've heard it can really help with endo symptoms but then I've also heard it really doesn't agree with some people. My GP surgery also doesn't do coil insertions for some reason so I would need to be referred to the clinic if I chose this option.
Do nothing and see what happens with the referral - GP says this could take up to a year (!) and it might be the case they reject the referral anyway if I haven't tried one of the above options.
It sounds a little silly but I'm also concerned that if I tried one of the hormonal options above and it solved a lot of the symptoms that the referral could be rejected as I would be feeling 'better' - surely it would just be masking the root cause of the problem? I still want the referral to go through and potentially have a laproscopy to be certain that it is endometriosis.
I have an appointment with my GP again in a couple of weeks so she can do a general pelvic exam to rule out PID and take some swabs (can't remember what she said the swabs would be for).
Apologies for the rather long post but this is a lot for me to digest at the moment. If anyone has any advice or could share their experiences, it would be greatly appreciated.